The barriers in organizing fieldwork-based learning trips in China: The tourism academics’ perspective

Abstract Fieldwork has been widely acknowledged as a useful educational practice. However, many academics are still reluctant to take their students to fieldwork. This study aims at identifying the barriers to conducting student fieldwork as perceived by tourism academics working in tertiary education in China. Data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 21 academics from twelve different tourism colleges. Using NVivo as an analytical tool, barriers were identified in seven areas: institutional system, academics, organization, accident, site, students, and social environment. The findings indicate that academics are aware of these barriers that prevent them from taking students to fieldwork. The study underlines the educational value attached to fieldwork by academics, informing institutes to formulate policies and strategies to increase academics’ motivation, and teacher educators to design education programs for academics to be able to organize and manage fieldwork-based learning trips.