Abstract:

Purpose:
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a central part of corporate strategies also for some of the companies in tourism. For customers as well as for employees, the integration of CSR strategies is becoming more and more important. The most advanced strategies of CSR are represented by the global players. Their impact on the CSR development and implementation is crucial as they systematically search for advantages and unique image on the market and they have financial resources available. Corporate social responsibility can be a competitive advantage, creates a positive image on the market and enhances positive relationship between company and customers or public. CSR can help also in the field of human resources management. As a responsible employer a company can easily get workers, enhance their loyalty and feeling of meaningful work, which is very important especially for the coming generation.

Education and competence of future managers is crucial for a successful CSR implementation:
It is necessary to implement CSR both as a strategy and concept, the managers must be able to set goals, create a strategy and report the results. To gain deep knowledge and competences, special attention must be paid to the education of future employees and managers.

Methodology/Results:
This article focuses on the education of future experts in the Tourism programme at the University of Novi Sad. This study consists of several parts and uses three different sources of data (pedagogic documents, interviews with teachers and survey of graduates). The content analysis is based on the analysis of secondary resources – pedagogic documents. All pedagogic documents were analysed, e.g. study programmes of bachelor and master degree, course syllabi, course schedules. The formal implementation of CSR topics in the curriculum was checked.

Research limitations/implications:
The topic is not presented with the appropriate emphasis, therefore it is necessary to change the approach. A very important issue is to prevent repetition in CSR coverage in different courses. Therefore, the topic can be divided into the institutional perspective (sustainability), business perspective (CSR) and CSR as a part of holistic marketing and its use in communication. It is desirable to increase CSR coverage as a part of specialized tourism subjects. The aim is to make the graduates familiar with the basic principles of CSR and to teach them how to apply an appropriate CSR strategy in tourism businesses. This means being able to judge the situation, suggest and implement an adequate CSR strategy, and to assess its impact on the company as well as the society.

Originality/Value of paper:
As the tourism field is very specific, one of the study programme goals is that the graduates should not have knowledge only of the general aspects of CSR, but they should be also able to apply them to practical day-to-day policies in tourism businesses even under specific conditions. This includes the analysis of impact on the company and potential benefits. Within the conceptual framework of the study programme, it is important to have a holistic approach to strengthening the teaching of CSR principles and to cover all the fields and implementation issues.

Keywords:

Tourism, Education, Corporate social responsibility, Graduates, Tourism study program.