A study on the impact of tourism students' foreign language self-efficacy beliefs and social interaction anxiety levels on their career retention decisions

The tourism sector is inherently labor-intensive, encompassing various services such as accommodation, food and beverage, transportation, guiding, and entertainment, all of which require significant human input. In particular, the quality of personnel is a key determinant in service delivery, especially in roles that necessitate direct interaction with guests. Human relations and interpersonal communication are critically important in tourism, making employees' knowledge, skills, and experience directly influential on service quality. The increasing diversity of tourist profiles due to globalization has further emphasized the importance of successful interactions with individuals from different cultural backgrounds. In this context, the development and training of a competent human resource in tourism is crucial for achieving sustainable development and enhancing the sector's global competitiveness. The aim of this study is to determine the levels of foreign language self-efficacy and social interaction skills among tourism students skills that are in high demand in the sector and to contribute to the development of educational strategies that address these needs. Additionally, the study investigates how students' foreign language self-efficacy and social interaction anxiety influence their intentions to remain in the sector. Data were collected through both online and face-to-face surveys conducted between May and June 2024. The findings indicate that tourism students' beliefs about their foreign language self-efficacy and their levels of social interaction anxiety significantly differ depending on the nature of their academic programs. The results also revealed that gender and academic department have significant effects on self-efficacy. Furthermore, individuals with prior work experience exhibited higher levels of self-efficacy, which positively influenced their career intentions. Increased anxiety levels were found to negatively impact students' career intentions. Moreover, a negative correlation was identified between self-efficacy and anxiety. These findings demonstrate that self-efficacy plays a crucial role both in reducing anxiety and in strengthening career intentions. In light of these results, new research models have been proposed for future studies on similar topics.