TURİZM ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN KİŞİLİK ÖZELLİKLERİ: TÜRKİYE'DE LİSANS DÜZEYİNDE TURİZM EĞ

University preferences are one of the most important determinants of individual business life. In this respect, there are numerous issues to be taken into consideration when students make university department preferences. One of these issues is the personality traits of the individual. The department preferences make by students in accordance with their personality traits have an important place in the education process and in the field which they are educated and, also in the success of business life. It is important to have certain personality traits for the individuals who want to work in tourism sector, because of the tourism sector required to be together with people of different culture, to communicate well and to make emotional efforts. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the eligibility of the students who have undergraduate tourism education in Turkey to work in the tourism sector by determining their personality traits within the five-factor personality model. In this context, the survey technique was used and a questionnaire with total of 44 items applied to 828 students who had undergraduate tourism education in 8 different universities which consisted of five dimensions consisting of openness, extroversion, self-discipline, compatibility and emotional balance within the framework of five-factor personality theory. The obtained data were analyzed with statistical package program. According to the results of obtained data, experiential openness and self-discipline dimensions represented the highest personality trait for tourism educated students while the emotional balance dimension was the lowest personality trait. The results of the t test and the one-way analysis of variance for the independent samples in order to determine the differences according to the demographic characteristics of the students revealed that the self discipline dimension differs according to the education class and the emotional balance and the experiential openness dimensions differ according to the income status of the families of the students. The findings of the study and its results were evaluated within the scope of tourism education.