A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of CIHTM Participants in the Work and Travel Program

Tourism professionals expect universities to produce graduates who could bring and perform functions based on industry standards. Universities have long integrated International Placements to heighten student proficiencies, bridge the gap between theoretical consciousness and industry practice, and meet the expectations of the practitioners. The main purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of CIHTM participants in the work and travel and come up with a program as an output to enhance support for participants to help them resolve possible existing common problems during the program. This study adopted the phenomenological and was conducted through zoom, which is suitable and convenient for both the researchers and participants in this pandemic. The researchers gathered data through in-depth interviews of samples gathered through snowball sampling. A laptop was used to record interviews in zoom. At the end of the thematic analysis of information, the researchers came up with themes. Findings of the study have shown that the program contributed to participants' personal and professional skills. They also acquired different opportunities and benefits from it. However, there have been reports of students' unfavorable encounters during the program, such as homesickness, cultural differences, locations, directions, climate, discrimination, and accidents in the workplace. To thus maximize the ability to enhance Tourism and Hospitality students' career-related goals, quality work and travel program placements need to be a priority for education providers and industry partners. It is suggested to have a program like “Kamustahan Tayo” online program which will help the participants to cope with the feelings of Homesickness, stress, and other psychological problems that emerged as a common theme for one of the statements of the problem of this study about the psychological and emotional effects of work and travel program to the participants.