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Huang, Jiajia

Community Development and Applied Economics

2005

MS

Tourism has made significant contributions to the Vermont economy by providing income and job opportunity to local residents although it suffers a high rate of labor mobility. There is a need to understand the factors that influence people's career perspectives on their tourism jobs. The objectives of this study are (1) to empirically analyze the motives of people entering tourism industry and their job satisfaction; (2) to investigate the factors influencing people's career decision of staying in tourism industry; and (3) to propose strategies to enhance tourism labor market. Traditional economics theory and human behavior theory are employed to identify significant factors that influence individual's career decision by focusing on demographics, economic and psychological characteristics. A survey instrument for this study was designed and conducted in two steps to collect data for this study between September 2004 and February 2005. An econometric approach of factor analysis and logistic regression is applied to the survey data. The factor analysis revealed that (1) people took tourism jobs mostly because of the environmental amenity; and (2) the environmental amenity was also the most satisfying aspect of tourism work. Three logistic regression models were further developed to examine the hypothesized relationships between demographics, economic, psychological factors and career decisions. The regression analysis shows that age, education, marital status and people's satisfaction with the non-economic aspects of tourism jobs have significant and different effects on their career decision in the tourism industry of Vermont.