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Tourism is of increasing significance to the economy of China and the industry is set to recruit 1 million tourism personnel in the next ten years. This exploratory study used grounded theory to investigate tourism students’ attitudes towards working in the tourism industry. The data analysis resulted in the emergence of a core category-tourism jobs: short-lived professions-which summarised the attitudes and views students held about tourism jobs. While students expressed enthusiasm about starting their first jobs in tourism following graduation, the five sub-categories that were identified to explain the factors influencing their attitudes reveal underlying concerns about long-term careers in the tourism industry. These five sub-categories were (a) personal reasons,(b) nature of tourism jobs,(c) human factors,(d) educational factors, and (e) management factors. The study highlights the importance of understanding the views and attitudes of the potential workforce towards tourism jobs. It also emphasises the challenges facing China’s government, tourism enterprises and the education sector if they are to address the issues that may negatively influence tourism students and hinder the healthy development of the tourism industry.