Factors Affecting the Training Needs of Tourism Planners: Evidence from Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area) has injected new impetus into the development of the tourism economy and created new emerging tourism industries. Therefore, many tourism planning needs to be formulated, which generates new requirements for tourism planners in terms of quantity and quality of tourism planning. Different stakeholders have different views on the needs of tourism planners. From the perspective of different stakeholders, what are the factors affecting the training needs of tourism planners? There is little research on the training needs of tourism planners from the perspective of stakeholders. Most of the existing research on the training needs of tourism planners derive only from the perspective of students or the ones from supply and demand, rather than from multiple stakeholders. This paper aims to construct a conceptual framework identifying factors affecting the training needs of tourism planners from stakeholders' perspective. A qualitative method (semi-structured interviews) is applied in this study to investigate the factors affecting the supply and demand of tourism planners in the Great Bay Area. The results show educators focus on market demand, working competence and teacher resources. Enterprises are concerned about the tourism policy, market demand, educational requirements and working competence. Students focus on employment motivation and working competence. Market demand is a common concern of educators and enterprises. Working competence is a factor of common interest to all stakeholders. This paper also proposes theoretical and practical implications for the government, tourism planning companies, and tourism universities and students.