Impact of COVID-19 on the undergraduate tourism students professional expectations, future anxiety and willingness to work in tourism sector

Occupational expectation includes one's views on success in his or her future profession. While choosing a profession, students' expectations about their future lives, relationships and status may affect their choice of profession. Anxiety about the future is a situation that creates stress on young people who cannot find a job. Issues such as whether young people will be able to find a job, whether they will continue in the job they find, etc., constitute their future concerns. The COVID-19 epidemic, which was seen in the last days of December 2019, first appeared in the Wuhan region of China and in a short time affected the whole world. This disease manifests itself with symptoms such as cough, high fever and shortness of breath. The COVID-19 Pandemic has significantly affected both tourism and tourism-related professions all over the world in 2020. In this study, it is aimed to determine the effects of undergraduate students' professional expectations and future concerns on their desire to work in the tourism sector in the COVID-19 Pandemic, since the opinions of students who want to do this profession in the future are important. In this study, the students of the tourism faculties of Selçuk University and Necmettin Erbakan University were selected as samples. Questionnaire form was used as data collection tool. The questionnaire was applied to 500 students studying in the 2022-2023 academic year. For the analysis of the collected data, t Test, ANOVA, correlation and regression tests were applied. As a result of the analysis, it was found that while the professional expectations and future concerns of Necmettin Erbakan University students affected their desire to work in the sector, only the professional expectations of Selcuk University students statistically affected their desire to work in the sector. Necmettin Erbakan University students' exposure to the COVID-19 Pandemic showed significant differences according to the level of industry experience. It has been found that Selcuk University students are affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic and there are significant differences according to department and class levels. Keywords: Professional Expectation, Future Anxiety, COVID-19 Pandemic, Willingness to Work in the Industry