Research on hospitality and tourism education: Now and future

Abstract

The education-related topics that have been favored by hospitality and tourism scholars in recent years are presented in this opinion paper. We categorized them into six groups: leadership and human capital development, teaching methods with the emphasis on active and experiential learning, online education, diversity education, internationalization, and industry experience. In addition, we shared our thoughts on additional research topics, reflecting the emerging trends in the hospitality and tourism industry as well as hospitality and tourism academia. Specifically, those thoughts include the development of undergraduate students' cultural competency, issues on hospitality and tourism PhD programs, full-fledged online curricula, and relationships with alumni and advisory board. It is our hope that this article provides some insights regarding the current status of hospitality and tourism education, and stirs up interest in education-related research within hospitality and tourism.