Abstract

EURICO, Sofia; SILVA, João Albino  and  VALLE, Patrícia. Tourism graduates’ satisfaction: the new challenges for higher education institutions and for the tourism industry. TMStudies [online]. 2013, vol.9, n.2, pp.29-36. ISSN 2182-8458.

The present study analyses the antecedent and subsequent variables of satisfaction for the Tourism graduate towards the attended Higher Education Institution (HEI), and it also considers his/her knowledge of the tourism industry as a professional. The meeting of these experiences represent a key information source for the strategic positioning and management of HEIs with a Tourism training offer, as well as for the tourism industry, which recognizes those corresponding more assertively to the needs of today's tourism professionals. Based on a conceptual framework related to the consumer satisfaction and using the Partial Least Square - Path Modelling technique, the relationship between the variables that comprise the process of customer satisfaction formation, based on the National Consumer Satisfaction Indexes methodologies of Contents, and some characteristics of the sample were analysed. The results show that image is the main antecedent of satisfaction for the respondents in relation to the attended HEI and also indicate a relevant distinction in their perception of the HEIs’ nature, either university or polytechnic.

Keywords : Consumer satisfaction; strategic management; Tourism Higher Education; PLS-PM.

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