Choosing Hospitality: Factors Driving Students Toward Hotel Management Education in an Emerging Tourism Hub

This study investigates the reasons students in Dehradun, a tourism hub in North India, choose to pursue hotel management education. This study evaluated individual, social, and institutional factors using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). A structured survey was administered to 282 first-year students across four colleges, with 94% of responses being usable. The questionnaire assessed the participants’ interests, career goals, social influences, and institutional factors. Reliability and validity were confirmed using factor analyses, and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) in SPSS/AMOS. The results indicate that institutional attributes, particularly placement opportunities and reputation, exert the strongest positive effect on student motivation (β = .42, p < .001). Individual factors, including personal interest and career goals, also had a significant impact (β = .37, p < .001), whereas social factors showed a weaker but still significant influence (β = .12, p < .05). The model explained 49% of the variance in the motivation. The findings show that institutional quality and aspirations outweigh social pressure in students' decisions. Colleges should prioritize employability, reputation, and infrastructure. By demonstrating reduced social norm effects in non-metropolitan India, this study advances the TPB and SCCT in hospitality education and guides institutions in emerging tourism economies. Keywords: Student Motivation; Hospitality Education; Dehradun; Emerging Tourism Hub; Theory of Planned Behaviour; Structural Equation Modeling