Virtual Reality in Tourism and Hospitality Education: Alternative Application Areas and Student Feedback

Vocational schools (vocational high schools, vocational colleges, faculties, etc.) need laboratories and workshops that offer practical training opportunities to improve students’ professional skills. The fact that each training program requires more than one and different application/workshop areas is the most important obstacle to the creation of these areas in physical and economic terms. It is thought that this problem can be overcome with virtual reality glasses, an effective and popular application tool of recent times, and that these obstacles can be overcome with much less physical space and low costs. In the study, a hotel room was designed and made available to students in order to investigate the feasibility of meeting the vocational practice needs of tourism and hotel management students. In this context, the usage possibilities of the designed virtual hotel rooms workshops are examined and the potential of these workshops as an alternative to traditional application areas is evaluated. In a virtual reality environment, three hotel room designs were created in accordance with the standards. While one of these designs met all standards, the other two rooms were deliberately arranged to have technical and hygiene deficiencies. A total of 30 undergraduate and associate degree students taking housekeeping courses examined these rooms using virtual reality glasses and were asked to identify deficiencies. The majority of participants gave positive feedback that virtual reality simulations enhanced learning by providing realistic and interactive experiences, while some participants reported negative side effects such as headaches and dizziness due to prolonged virtual reality use. Overall, the results revealed that the virtual reality experience was found enjoyable and students appreciated the immersive and engaging nature of the application. Cite this article as: Tokdemir, V., Uğur, İ., Yurt, İ. & Yılmaz, M. (2025). Virtual reality in tourism and hospitality education: alternative application areas and student feedback. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 2025, 22, 0027, doi:10.5152/ hayef.2025.25027.