The Mediating Role of Perception in the Relationship between Expectation and Satisfaction in Terms of Sustainability in Tourism Education

Education plays a central role in shaping individual and social change toward sustainability. Sustainable tourism education provided by the higher education institutions which offer education at the undergraduate level has an important role in training candidate managers and meeting the need for qualified labor in the tourism sector in terms of sustainable tourism. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among expectation, perception, and satisfaction of the undergraduate students receiving tourism education at the tertiary level. It is also aimed to reveal the mediating role of perception between expectation and satisfaction. One of the quantitative methods used in the research process was the causative and correlational model. A total of 675 students participated in this survey conducted at the Tourism Faculty of Akdeniz University. To collect data, expectation of tourism education, perception of tourism education, and satisfaction of academic education scales were used. In the data analysis, parametric tests, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and regression analyses were applied. In this study, it was revealed that 675 students receiving tourism education at the undergraduate level came to school with moderate-level expectations, their perceptions fulfilled their expectations with the experience they had, and their satisfaction levels that emerged as a result of their perceptions were at a moderate level as well. As a result of the t-test performed, it was put forward that there was no difference in their level of satisfaction based on the gender variable; however, a significant difference was determined based on the high school type from which a subject graduated, the current department, class, and age variables. As a result of the correlation analysis, a positive relation was identified between the expectation, perception, and satisfaction variables. The multiple regression analysis indicated that expectation positively affected perception and satisfaction; therewithal, perception affected satisfaction and its sub-dimensions positively. It was also found that the perception had a partial mediating role between expectation and satisfaction in education.