APPLYING THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (TPB) TO EXPLORE JOB POSITION CHOICE INTENTIONS AMONG TOURISM STUDENTS

Abstract

This study applies the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify the factors influencing the career choice intention of tourism students. The aim is to assess the impact of job attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, digital technology, and personal factors on career decisions. The PLS-SEM method is applied to data from tourism students to measure the influence through path coefficients and R². The results show that positive job attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and personal factors have a significant impact on career intentions, with R² = 0,637, explaining 63,6% of the variance. In contrast, subjective norms and digital technology have no significant impact. The study suggests that tourism students make career decisions primarily based on personal motivation and evaluation, with little influence from social pressure or technology. Educators should focus on developing self-management skills and tapping into students' intrinsic motivation while considering technology as a supportive tool in career guidance. Future research should expand the sample, include contextual factors, and combine qualitative methods to enrich the quantitative results and address the limitations of self-reported data.