Competition in the higher education sector has led to an increase in studies examining student motivations for study and satisfaction with their overall education experience. While there is a growing body of literature focused on undergraduate students, few studies have addressed postgraduate student motivations for studying tourism. To address this gap, a study of tourism postgraduate students studying at the School of Tourism, The University of Queensland (UQSoT) was implemented. This article explores the relative importance of location, institution and program focus as motivators for undertaking postgraduate studies in tourism.

There is a widely held assumption that the Internet provides opportunities to rethink and reorganise the knowledge interaction and dissemination between industry, education and research. Web 2.0 technologies are emerging as teaching and learning tools, but there is still no striking evidence to support the above-mentioned assumption. Accordingly, the purposes of this article are to, first, discuss the challenges in tourism education and address in brief the declining role of universities as knowledge monopolies and their emerging role as open knowledge mediators. Second, to present open innovation paradigms and address issues of knowledge accumulation and dissemination in tourism and the new role of the university. Third, INNOTOUR, an experimental Web 2.0 innovation hub for tourism, is presented. Preliminary learning experiences using the INNOTOUR platform as an advanced tool for collaborative, open source education in tourism are outlined. Finally, we point out collaborative challenges for international tourism research and teaching. We argue that there is a compelling need to build grounded theory and consolidated practice that will advance the quality and efficiency of tourism education through the use of a wide span of interactive technologies and committed teaching methods, facilitating dynamic, interdisciplinary and international learning experiences.

University education is, at times, claimed to be overly theoretical and disconnected from the reality for which it is preparing students. The disconnection of theory from practice might have a negative impact on students' learning experiences if it leads to a view of university education as impractical and abstract, rather than current and applicable to work–life situations. A pedagogical method aimed at bringing examples from workplaces and society in general, to theory lectures, is to use different media sources, such as magazines, music, television or films. These can highlight how theory contextualises, explains and improves practice.The aim of this article is to investigate how the animated TV series, The Simpsons, can be fruitfully used to illuminate tourism practices in a theoretical first-year tourism university unit. The method used in the article is to present an example illustrated by educational constructivism. The major finding is that by analysing The Simpsons as a key to popular culture and how the series is part of the formation of social perceptions of tourism in the public domain, students learn to see why it is important to use theories when managing tourism businesses.

Suitable skills and attributes have always been an important part of effective and successful participation in the tourism workplaces. This study aimed to explore tourism managers' perceptions of the skills and attributes required in the tourism industry in Australia. The method involved a content analysis of tourism skill sets and a survey to identify the required skill sets sought by employers. Importance–Performance Analysis revealed differences between graduate attributes and skills and manager's perceptions of their importance and level of performance. These results provided industry-based information about skills and attributes for the improvement of curriculum design. It will enhance the abilities of tourism education to provide job-ready graduates for the future global tourism industry.