An exploration of tourism development theory and potential educational responses in Eastern Libya

Tourism in many developing countries has experienced rapid growth over the past three decades. This exponential growth fostered a plethora of methods and lessons learned from others' experiences that have gone through similar paths of tourism development. The identification of obstacles that relate to socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts has been challenged, and have been challenging. It seems from these case debates that tourism education is an essential tool in rural development, especially when it is intended to introduce tourism to rural areas and simultaneously to ensure sustainable rural tourism as an essential component of the national economy. The significance of this study is that it provides a case study of identification, evaluation and potential implementation of the relationships between development theory and educational responses. The context is provided from research carried out into rural tourism development in Eastern Libya, and how the institutions of tourism education can contribute towards preparing tourism employees with the skills required, and knowledge of the various aspects of rural tourism. However, research on rural tourism in developing countries in general, and in Libya in particular, is characterized by the lack of literature and insufficient data, and even when the data is available; it is often unreliable, fragmented and misleading. The aim of the study was to improve and develop the quality and services of rural tourism in Eastern Libya in order for it to become a sustainable and attractive destination. This was achieved by investigating the major obstacles to the development of rural tourism, and by providing appropriate alternatives to the current status quo and projected pathways for development. This was predicated upon close cooperation between the higher institutions of tourism and tourism sector based locally in Eastern Libya. The cooperation and communication between these sectors was not found to be mirrored when viewing the sector nationally and internationally. The thesis combines the findings from descriptive, analytical and inferential critical analysis, within an informative historical background on tourism in general and rural Libyan tourism in particular. The target area for this study was Eastern Libya; however, the findings and policies are proposed to be adapted for other rural regions in Libya with special consideration to the geographical variations among these regions. The success of the study was based upon the understanding of the cultural dimension from a Libyan national's perspective as this meant the process was achievable. It was important to get an unbiased local impression of the potential impacts of change in order to factor this into the development process. The findings of this study indicate that the institutions of tourism education can contribute towards preparing tourism employees with the necessary skills and techniques, knowledge and competencies to reduce the gap between what is taught and what should be taught in the tourism institutes, However, in order to achieve this some of the deficiencies of the present training programmes need to be further investigated and solutions identified. In addition co-operation between tourism higher institutions and other tourism sectors nationally and internationally need be increased if tourism education is to flourish and initial and in-service training of tourism employees to be improved.