Open Access64 RESEARCH PAPER Sixty years of tourism higher education and research in Bulgaria
Author(s) -
Maria Vodenska,
Sonia Mileva-Bozhanova
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
european journal of tourism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1314-0817
pISSN - 1994-7658
DOI - 10.54055/ejtr.v15i.262
Subject(s) - tourism , hospitality , higher education , tourism geography , workforce , hospitality management studies , marketing , political science , economic growth , public relations , business , economics , law
During the last 60 years Bulgaria has steadily developed and improved its tourism industry. A lot has been done to educate the national workforce to be employed in tourism and hospitality in the country. The paper aims are: to follow the historical development of tourism and hospitality higher education in the country; to outline the present structure of this education with all specifics of the institutions involved in it; to make a comparative analysis of the ratings of these institutions; and to outline the main research topics of tourism and hospitality university lecturers. The results of the analysis show that tourism higher education in Bulgaria is evolving and growing in terms of institutions and also in terms of number of students. Tourism universities and colleges are quite evenly distributed across the country, and a good balance among tourism programs in the main tourism areas (economics, spatial and social tourism development, hospitality) has been achieved. There are many opportunities for research and PhD studies, and the number of libraries and access to international scientific publications and sources is quite sufficient.