Abstract
This study determined the travel-pack skills possessed by business education students for efficient itinerary planning in the modern freelancing niche in the online space. Three purposes, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated and tested in the study. A descriptive survey research design was used to conduct the study among Federal Universities in the South East Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria. The population of the study was 178 final-year students. No sample was drawn as the entire population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-designed Google Form with 31 items. The validity of the instrument was established by three lecturers from the departments of Business Education and one from the department of Computer and Robotics Education in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient was used to test the internal consistency of the instrument, and Federal universities in South-South that offer business education programme were used, giving an overall coefficient of 0.89. The data collected was analyzed using the mean to answer the research questions and the standard deviation to determine the level of dispersal of responses. The hypotheses were tested using a t-test. The study found that business education students do not possess the needed skills in preparing a travel pack for efficient itinerary planning. It was concluded that there is a need for targeted curriculum improvement to equip business education students with a more comprehensive and competitive skill set for the global digital workforce. It was recommended that workshops and seminars should be organized regularly to build students' practical competence in areas where they lack, especially in itinerary design and online accommodation booking using tools like Google Travel, Airbnb, or Booking.com. Secondly, institutions offering business education should revise and enhance their curriculum to integrate more practical training in itinerary planning and lodging reservation systems, possibly through simulations, travel management apps, or virtual projects.
Keywords:Travel Pack, Itinerary, freelancing, Business Education, Online Space
Publication Date: 2025-07-15