The importance of teaching tourism at higher level, for development of tourist industry in Portugal

Abstract

We characterized the economic importance of tourism that, worldwide, for Portugal. This paper aims to assess the importance of higher education for better remuneration of workers and increase the quality of the tourism’s offer. Next, we characterize higher education in Portugal in terms of universities and polytechnic institutes. We analysed the salary differences between more and less academically qualified workers using the example of accommodation and food services activities, in order to reinforce the importance of higher education. We collected data on the curricular units of universities (10) and polytechnic institutes (21) in the tourism degree. We conclude that there is a relationship between academic qualifications and better wages. We conclude that, despite the difference between the number of universities considered (10) and the institutes (21) that there is a greater diversity in the offer of curricular units, which validates the importance of higher education