Malaysian hospitality managerial knowledge: A competence model approach

Success or failure of tourism industry relies heavily on how the host nations control and manage the industry, strategies and manage its capital and resources, including human. At the core, the survival and competitiveness of the industry depend largely on the workforce. It seems obvious that hospitality management schools are now playing a critical role in providing support for the unprecedented development of the industry. This will depend largely on how educational institutions conceptualise hospitality management education. In order to identify the knowledge domain of the industry, the initial competence statements were drawn, adapted and collated from various studies. Industry professionals were identified using the Tourism Malaysia database on Malaysian hotels. The actual return was 132 or 39% of the 337 questionnaires sent. Eleven (11) factors were clearly defined. The result from the factor analysis has produced 11 underlying dimensions representing the 104 statements. The combined 11 factors accounted for 64.4 % of the total variance.