The Influence of Problems Faced During Internships on Interns' Views of Their Profession and Their Intention to Work in the Tourism Industry

Abstract

Problem Statement: The problem of this research is identifying the difficulties that undergraduate students experience during their internships and assessing their future intention to work in the tourism industry. Purpose of Study: This research aims to identify the problems undergraduate students encounter as interns in tourism programs and to document their views on the tourism sector after their internships. The paper also focuses on whether the problems experienced during the internship program affect the students’ intention to work in the tourism business in the future. Methods: All research constructs were measured using multiple-item, fivepoint Likert scales. Third- and fourth-year undergraduate students from two different universities who had completed their internships were selected for the study Balikesir and Canakkale universities were selected by convenience sampling, and the surveys were conducted with 330 of the 550 available students. Findings and Results: Internship problems have four dimensions, though from a business perspective, the problems can also be viewed from two sub-dimensions. The findings of this study reveal that interns are given only very basic employee rights, that interns are viewed as cheap labor,