Research

Successful Hospitality Research Symposium on Hotelschool The Hague's Amsterdam campus

Last week, the third edition of our yearly Hospitality Research Symposium took place with over 100 delegates from 25 different international hotel schools, universities, and partners from our Erasmus+ projects, In2food and THETA. This year’s symposium was a great success, ‘’This was an excellent event that broadened my perspective. It was of value and I look forward to next year's event’’ said a participant. Someone else highlighted that, ‘’ The conference was interesting and well organised. The keynotes were a departure from the norm and very informative.’’

The theme of this year’s symposium was Impact. Hotelschool The Hague seeks to make a positive contribution to the work of hospitality professionals, and to society in general, as defined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For us, the importance of conducting research is determined by this contribution. In other words, we focus on societal impact, rather than research metrics.

The symposium included five inspiring keynotes and seven insightful paper sessions related to Innovation in Hospitality Education, Tourism and local communities, Food waste reduction, Food sustainability, CSR and responsible tourism, Digital innovation, and Responsible HRM.

The Keynotes

Prof. Marianna Sigala, a prestigious tourism scholar and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, discussed the importance of research with purpose, especially transformative research in tourism and hospitality.

We also had the pleasure to hear Stijn Bronzwaer, Merijn Rengers, and Joris Kooiman, three journalists who dove into the history of Booking.com and whose accounts gave eye-opening insights in how this company has evolved.

The second day of the symposium started with the keynote of Wilfred Mijnhardt from the Rotterdam School of Management. He is passionate about universities, business schools, responsible research & education in business and management, excellence, and impact. He discussed responsibility and open turns in business and management during the symposium.

Then Dr. Horst Treiblmaier, Professor and Head of the Department of International Management at Modul University, discussed blockchain in the tourism and hospitality industry and how it has transformed it.

And the last keynote was conducted by Dr. Johanna Renny Octavia, an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and also the Head of Center for Ergonomics, Parahyangan Catholic University, Indonesia. She is the Primary Coordinator of the Erasmus+ IN2FOOD Project, a capacity building in higher education project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, in which Hotelschool The Hague takes a significant part as a consortium partner. During the symposium, she referred to food waste as a societal challenge in Indonesia, and how we can fight it through an interdisciplinary approach and collaborative innovation.

The next Hospitality Research symposium will take place on 8 and 9 June 2023 with the theme ''Robotics and automation in Hospitality''.

Stay tuned!