Tourism Insights From Chinese Students in U.S. Hospitality Programs

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a Skift’s series on the State of Travel Education, which focuses on how universities are preparing the industry’s future talent to be thought leaders and innovators. There is a great deal of interest in outbound Chinese travelers within the tourism industry, but little attention is paid to Chinese students studying tourism and hospitality in the U.S. Chinese students head to schools in the U.S. and Europe to pick up new strategies to help influence the direction of both outbound and inbound Chinese travel. In 2013, more than 274,000 Chinese students were enrolled at American universities, the largest group of foreign students studying in the U.S. Determining the number of Chinese students studying hospitality and tourism in the U.S. is tricky, as the Institute of International Education, for example, doesn't track data for specific majors or specify what is and is not a hospitality or tourism-related degree. Skift talked to two