Tourism and Hospitality Education: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

Worldwide, the tourism and hospitality industry has been expanding quickly over the past two decades as a result of globalization. The role of tourism and hospitality education at colleges, universities, and vocational schools plays a critical role in achieving excellence in the tourism industry. In the tourism and hospitality industry, being a highly competitive work-market focused on services, there is the constant demand for developing educational programs that emphasize professional skills along with student quality. This new book looks at how higher education in tourism and hospitality meets the demands and expectations of today’s tourism and hospitality industry.

Abdallah M. Elshaer, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City, Egypt, where he has been a faculty member since 2011. He holds a PhD in Tourism and Hospitality from Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech University, USA, and University of Sadat City, Egypt. He traveled to the UK for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Plymouth to work on a project about perceived value in an international learning environment. His research interests lie in higher tourism education, challenges of the tourism and hospitality industry, service operations management, business management, and foodservice operations. Dr. Elshaer is a co-author of the book Labor in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Skills, Ethics, Issues, and Rights and the author of publications in the journals Tourism Recreation Research; Journal of Vacation Marketing; Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education; Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism; Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Cases; Problems of Sustainable Development; International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality; and International Journal on Recent Trends in Business and Tourism. He is teaching many courses on hotel quality management, hospitality marketing, hygiene and safety in restaurants, human resources management, hotel management, principles of statistics, and resort management.

Asmaa M. Marzouk, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Tourism Studies Department at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City, Egypt, since 2011. For over ten years, she has taught a wide range of courses on tourism management, information and communication technologies in tourism, travel agencies, basics of tourism and hotels, and tourism marketing. Her research interests concentrate on higher tourism education, information and communication technologies in tourism, labor issues, tourism management, and destination marketing. She has co-authored the book Labor in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Skills, Ethics, Issues, and Rights, and she has also published a number of papers in the journals Tourism Recreation Research, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Cases, International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality, and International Journal on Recent Trends in Business and Tourism. Dr. Marzouk graduated from the faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Menoufia University; her MSc degree in Tourism Studies is from the Sadat City, Egypt.