The hospitality four-year
education degree program has been available since the mid-1920’s in the United
States; nevertheless, many non-hospitality scholars have suggested the field is
nothing more than a vocational exercise. While academia has argued as to its
relevance, hospitality industry participants have advocated for even more
resources devoted to this area as they see the need for more rigorous academic
research as well as the education of next generation industry leaders.
This paper will examine
these arguments as well as potential resolutions. Key focus will be on building
out hospitality studied academic relevance as well as the adjustment of mission
and curriculum of hospitality programs in a post-pandemic environment. Rather than resisting collaboration outside
hospitality academic studies leaders should embrace work with social science and
business scholars. A revised curriculum justifying the value of a hospitality
education both to increase employment opportunities as well as to build
scholarly acceptance.
Many of
the findings of this paper were preliminary presented at a previous North East
Business Educators conference but never published in an academic journal. More detail, history and
resources have been added to augment and justify the findings.
