LEARNING MOTIVATION AND INTENTION TO CHANGE MAJORS OF TOURISM STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

Abstract

This study aims to understand learning motivation and intention to change majors of tourism students in the context of COVID-19. The survey results of 620 students from 7 universities in Da Nang show that learning motivation in the current context is quite high, but there is a slight decrease compared to the period before COVID-19; 23.2% of students have ever intended to change majors due to the impact of COVID-19 with 4 main reasons: bad awareness about the epidemic situation; anxiety about future jobs in the tourism industry; teaching activities in the context of COVID-19 and students' personal factors. The intention to change majors has impacted on students' learning motivation, making learning motivation reduced. In order to improve learning motivation and reduce the intention to change majors of tourism students, the study proposes a number of solutions for universities in 3 aspects: (1) communication and career orientation; (2) quality online teaching; (3) the attention of universities and lecturers to the students.