"You're Going to Need a Bigger Boat (or Curriculum)"

There is now a “healthy scepticism” (Boyle et al, 2015, p254) regarding vocational hospitality and tourism degrees with the argument that this approach (Tribe, 2002; Baum, 2005; Inui et al, 2006; McKercher, 2001) fails to produce a workforce capable of tackling contemporary sectoral issues. A 21st century curriculum should inspire students to be innovative, critical thinkers (Stone et al, 2017) with the potential to be future leaders in the industry. Supporting this is the delivery of transformative learning, i.e. enabling students to learn “how to think rather than what to think” (Moore, 2005 as quoted by Boyle et al, 2015, p254) and thus prepare students for life and citizenship (Lashley, 1999).

Using a multi-disciplinary approach this chapter will explore utilising horror based edutainment scenarios, for example Jaws and sustainable tourism development, to create transformative learning experiences for hospitality and tourism students. A horror based pedagogic approach has been recognised elsewhere for its ability to change how students think (Arnzen, 2008), whilst edutainment which exchanges the didactic approach for a fun approach has been pioneered (Ivanova & Light, 2018) by the tourism industry. This innovative approach is intended to promote discussion regarding the use of theoretical approaches from other disciplines to create 21st century graduates for the hospitality and tourism sector.