Mahidol University International College (MUIC) is the leading international college in Thailand. Most students come from well-off families being used to high consumption. They entered college without much thought of sustainability. Seeing the importance of the next generation in tourism business, the TIM Division has been applying concepts to alter student’s weak awareness into a stronger one resulting in behaviour change. Students are introduced to the fundamental subjects of sustainability and take field trip to gain real understanding. They setup clubs to promote sustainable practices to raise people's awareness twice a year. Senior students were encouraged to enter the national competition relating to tourism and sustainable management. Consistent marketing activities are used for the ongoing motivation and perception. The majority of students are moving towards changing behaviour. Students take initiative by questioning some practices and proposing voice of concern to the management. This has created an effective bottom-up feedback.
HE on Sustainability in Travel Industry Management Division (TIM) under the Mahidol University International College (MUIC) is applied to groups of students with affluent family backgrounds. Many are the successors of tourism entrepreneurs and are used to a highly consumptious lifestyle before joining college. In general, students who enter TIM MUIC do not have financial constraints. Most of them have parents supporting their tuition fee during their study. A number of them drive to school with expensive cars despite the fat that they live nearby. Obviously, the idea of reducing energy and resource consumption rarely occurred to them before joining college. Mahidol University International College's take on the philosophy from Mahidol University stated that “True success is not in the learning, but in its application to the benefit of mankind”. The college believes in creating responsible graduates who can give true benefits to society. Hence, seeing the importance of the new generation especially when they are going to be key factors promoting sustainability in the Travel Industry in Thailand, TIM Division have tried to create the influential factors towards students. Framework for behaviour change is used to describe the steps of change towards sustainable society in college. Knowledge and Awareness are created by involving students in the courses both in theory and in practice. The ongoing campaign is a marketing tool to alter awareness into a stronger mindset. The study found that once the awareness has been seeded consistently enough, and long enough, it will create a change of behaviour. Once each individual in the society has changed their pattern of behaviour, it will create the dimension of sustainable society.
The following points are our objectives that we adapt to promote our sustainability practices to our students:
Commit to the philosophy of Mahidol University - “True success is not in the learning, but in its application to the benefit of mankind”
Create the consistent awareness and stronger mind set onto students which will lead to the changing of behaviour towards sustainability
Influence the students to carry on good practices with the hope that they will manage the tourism business in the sustainable way since the students will be key roles in the future tourism business in Thailand.
In order to consider Higher Education in Thailand within a sustainability sphere, this paper will point out how Mahidol University International College (MUIC) could be one of the good practices for sustainability application in the developing country. Seeing that students are key factors for the future of tourism industry in Thailand, it is very important that they start thinking about long-term sustainability both in terms of practices and the use of tourism resources. Hence, the TIM division has been trying to tune and develop their mindsets towards sustainability ideas. Our practices have been proved to achieve the step that students’ behaviours toward the sustainability have changed once the ongoing campaign has been implemented for the stronger students’ awareness. Once each individual changes his/her behaviour, the facet of sustainable society will be achieved. The following are practices we have applied to students:
Firstly, at the policy level, the TIM division has revised the curriculum two years ago by adding one more concentration called the sustainable tourism into the programme. The concentration is comprised of subjects such as sustainable tourism, ecotourism, and tourism environment. Students will get to learn the significant impact of behaviors of tourists whether they destroy/promote the sustainability of natural resources. They will also learn from field trips, ranging from 1 day to 3 days 2 nights, about the importance of natural resources and ecotourism.
Secondly, the TIM Division also encourages students to run their own club under advisory from lecturers. Members can create various sustainable development projects such as setting up different campaigns about sustainability, raising funds to support sustainable tourism for local fishing villages, or arranging training for village kids who desire to be a tour guide in their communities.
The special campaign called the green tourist supporter is set up twice a year and has been arranged three years continuously. The purpose of this is to raise awareness of green tourism to college students, faculty and staff. Students get to generate their ideas to promote a campaign, run the campaign and evaluate the result afterwards. The campaign activities include providing information on green tourism based on the selected topic, inviting influential speakers, showing good practices and raising donations for green-tourist supporting organizations. Apart from the campaign, the TIM Division also encourages senior students to apply their knowledge to the national competitions of which topics relate to the sustainable tourism management. Students entered the contests such as “Teen loves Travel (TLT)” contest and “SCB Contest”. The TLT contest asked college students to propose the business plan to develop new sustainable tourist destination in Thailand while the SCB contest asked students to develop marketing plans to promote local business, self-sustained community and society engagement in sustainability concept. Two groups of students received national awards from the Ministry of Tourism and Sport and the sustainable mindset of senior students became stronger.
From the questionnaire and observations that we have done on the fifty senior students (40% of the senior population), the result shows us that 100% of the students answering the questionnaires gain better awareness and alter their behaviours toward the sustainability concept. They mentioned that they have developed better practices toward this concept compared to when they just entered college. Students gain knowledge and awareness from learning in classes and going on a field trip. They are more concerned about energy and resources consumption. They consume less and even consider eco-resort as the first priority when they go traveling. Students from cycling club also proposed their idea about a car-free day to the management to help lessen car usage in the college. Groups of students have initiated car pooling when coming to the college to reduce car usage. Questions such as why doesn't the college have separate rubbish bins, why doesn’t the college encourage students to use glass instead of plastic were raised to voice their concerns and the needs towards the change. These are promising actions from students as it creates bottom-up feedback to the management.
Proposed Framework and actions 1). Gaining Knowledge
-Implement the sustainable tourism subjects into the course; -Take students on field trip to gain real understanding.
-National competition on sustainable tourism planning
3).Changing behaviour by:
- Consuming less - Being more responsible tourists - Conduct and carry on good practices - Car pooling - Influence family members -Propose responsible practices to the college authority
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