A Comparative Study of Student Learning Styles in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Uttarakhand

The findings of tourism statistics reveals that both domestic and foreign tourism are on a robust growth path in India. This growth opens up doors for substantial increase in infrastructure, including air-road, rail connectivity as well as hotels and restaurants. This growth has resulted in increased demand of manpower requirement in the field, thus resulting in more institution being established in the area of Tourism and Hospitality education. Within the context of the hospitality and tourism educational environment in Garhwal and the Kumaun region of Uttarakhand, this paper provides a comparative analysis of the preferred learning styles of students studying hospitality and tourism programmes. Specifically, it compares the learning styles of students studying in two regions of Uttarakhand depending on the year level of study and as such it highlights the learning style preferences displayed by students at different stages of their educational experience. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding the importance of recognising the potential changes in learning style preferences as student's progress in their studies. The paper further concludes with discussion regarding the implications of such changes for academic staff.