Industry 4.0 technologies in tourism education: Nurturing students to think with technology

The Industry 4.0 revolution is bringing major transformations in the tourism systems design suitable for technologically oriented consumers. Indeed, methods and technologies introduced by Big Data, Automation, Virtual and augmented reality, Robotics and ICT well fit with the Tourism 4.0 paradigm. However, tourism students are not yet trained on techniques, issues and methods related to the Industry 4.0 framework. Hence, relying on a careful examination of the literature on tourism market trends linked to the offer of innovative technological services, we identified conceptual, methodological, technological and practical skills to be developed in an academic curriculum for Tourism Science students. Learning path were focused on: i) processes of data acquisition from social media, ii) data analysis using Machine Learning techniques and iii) data design into significant elements useful to implement communication systems in the tourism field. Results showed that the most of participants achieved a medium-high evaluation for the implementation of the communication systems, applying appropriately techniques and tools learned along the course. Furthermore, the high percentage of students satisfaction registered in relation to the course, revealed that students enjoyed this experience. Outcomes reflects the acquisition and the awareness of those skills that will enable students to be conscious protagonists of their role in tourism 4.0.