Balancing the needs of industry and academia in developing a market-ready sustainable tourism master's program

To produce employable graduates, universities and tourism employers need to work together to strive for a balance between academic requirements and industry needs. The aim of this study is to assess the employability competencies and skills required from tourism master graduates by exploring tourism employers' perspectives. A qualitative research methodology was applied to gain a better understanding of the perspectives of tourism employers, using semi-structured focus groups with a purposive sample of twenty-five tourism business owners and senior managers in Cairns. The paper reports on the identified themes from the focus group discussions with tourism industry employers and draws conclusions on the effectiveness of the process in the development of a master's level degree.