Creating a better future for the hospitality and tourism education

In recent years, countless hospitality and tourism programs have been experiencing low enrollment, budgetary issues, low scores in the college rankings, and failure to secure good job opportunities for their graduates. This occurs due to the implementation of unethical hiring and recruiting practices for faculty and staff, poor decision-making over key operational areas, abusive supervision, lack of ethical leadership, and careless strategic planning. However, the major reason is that there has been a huge gap between the hospitality and tourism academia and the industry which keeps growing. This is a rapidly changing industry where new trends are constantly emerging, new technologies are introduced, and innovative strategies arise. Meanwhile, hospitality and tourism programs around the world fail to understand the ever-changing industry trends, adapt to the new standards, and revise their curriculum accordingly. COVID-19 was the final blow that pushed academic institutions to their limits and created additional challenges. This chapter aims to address the issues that the hospitality and tourism academia has been struggling with, offer practical recommendations that will help tackle its operational difficulties, provide top quality education, prepare the leaders of tomorrow effectively, and bring it closer to the industry.