College students' perceptions of tourism careers in China: implications for the industry and education providers.

Career perception literature is dominated by discussions on students’ general perceptions of the tourism and hospitality industry; little, however, seems to have been addressed in terms of how tourism and hospitality undergraduate students’ career perceptions differ and what dimensions are reliable in measuring and determining students’ overall career perceptions. This study is designed to address these issues. Four underlying dimensions are identified; of which, “Intrinsic” was found to be the most powerful predictor of students’ overall career perceptions. This study verifies that students’ perceptions vary according to their differing characteristics. Implications to both the industry and education providers are discussed.