Covid-19 Pandemic and Higher Education in Tourism in the State of Rio De Janeiro (Brazil)

The paper presents reflections of a research project that seeks to discuss with the academic community of Tourism in Brazil the directions of higher education in the area, taking into account the sudden world transformations underway, accelerated by the pandemic of Covid-19. In this phase, higher education in Tourism was contextualized in the last decades until the dramatic situation experienced with the pandemic. This empirical research favored higher education courses in Tourism in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Listening channels were built to listen the actors involved, with questionnaires being the main instrument for data collection. The situations experienced, the doubts, anxieties and hopeful speeches (or not) of teachers, students and course coordinators about the tourism phenomenon, including its academic dimension, reveal signs for a deeper reflection of the necessary transformations in higher education in Tourism, aiming to respond to the new global challenges that are reflected in this field.