Analyzing the Problems of the Process of Comprehensive Tourism Education System in Iran with Emphasis on Entrepreneurship Approach

The process of tourism education system in Iran in order to achieve its goals requires new theoretical and managerial perspectives with an entrepreneurial approach to create the possibility of making changes in the existing conditions. The aim of the current research is to analyze the problems of the process of this system in the field of entrepreneurship from the point of view of actors in this field. The current research is exploratory-explanatory in terms of purpose and mixed (qualitative-quantitative) in terms of method, based on a semi-structured interview with 177 experts from organizations of the supply and demand system of tourism education in Iran, which is a random cluster sampling were chosen. The collected data were analyzed using the social network analysis method through Gephi software and the indices of degree centrality, weighted input degree centrality and weighted output degree centrality. The results of the research showed that the most centrality of the degree, which corresponds to the most important actor of the network, is the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, and then the state universities active in the field of tourism. This result has more significant differences after applying the problem labels. Analyzing the problems allows the experts in this field to define the future goals of this process with the necessary knowledge and provide the basis for the comprehensive, integrated and balanced development of this sector.