Mainstreaming Child-friendly Tourism Education: Issues in Curriculum and Instruction

Abstract

Tourism programmes that fail to give specific thoughts to the age, development and vulnerability of a child are unlikely to be adequately suited for the child. Travel and tourism is a type of experiential learning, and the child who comes into this learning context would get more out of it when effort has been made to make the environment learning-friendly and child-friendly. The paper highlights the need and feasibility of making tourism education more child-friendly thus making the industry better equipped to give the child tourist "a hospitable welcome". This proposal to mainstream child­ friendliness in tourism goes beyond curricula of regular courses in the travel and hospitality sector to include the curricula of professional s like doctors, nurses, architects, engineers, pilots, custom and police officers who provide service to the tourism industry. Efforts to achieve child-friendliness in tourism education should give attention to such issues as play, learning, nutrition and healthcare which are intimately related to the development and wellbeing of the child.