Digitisation in hospitality learning

It goes without saying that Covid has changed hospitality and innovation markets worldwide.

Many businesses have had to slow down or indeed temporarily close their businesses, but that can be viewed as a crisis or an opportunity.

Hospitality businesses with a focus on proximity and local destinations have been the first to resume and with it all the different forms of travel, accommodation and catering. On the other hand, business tourism will take longer to return to precovid levels.

The solutions that had to be implemented by organizations to avoid travel and allow trade between countries will probably be retained in the period after the virus or at least partially, which will slow the recovery of business tourism. Here players will have to reinvent themselves and offer solutions that meet the new expectations of this sector.

The scope of higher education in the hospitality industry has also shifted. With the outbreak of Covid-19 causing many educational institutions to close temporarily, many including Les Roches had to turn to distance learning. Digital textbooks accessible 24/7, videoconferences and online content and assessments were among the solutions.

To keep a personalized approach, online Q&A sessions for small groups were held several times a day to ensure students from all time zones could participate.

When I started teaching many years ago it was about imparting knowledge in very formal lessons, and we were measuring knowledge learned and memorized.

Today, and with innovation being at the center of our teaching, our methods integrate many interactive forms which complement each other: skillbased learning is the top priority.

Whilst we are looking forward to students returning to campus for face-to-face delivery, we cannot ignore the fact that teaching styles have changed and that digitalization is here. Digitalization is one of the most significant trends in hospitality education, and is also one of the most significant trends in the hospitality industry.

This has been foreseen as a trend shaping the world, but now it has become a necessity with the Covid crisis being a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality world. However, we must not forget that hospitality is all about customer’s experience and that digitalization must help to enhance this experience.

To provide our students with the best tailor-made experience, we make sure to embrace the best of both, the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ worlds. A good example of where we have brought this together is the first Certificate in Artificial Intelligence applied to hospitality management launched with aivancity, the Paris-cachan based School for Technology, Business and Society.

The five-day program, running from September 2021, includes two days of sprint design focusing on imagining and prototyping an AI solution for the hospitality industry.

Hospitality education providers should encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in all their courses – this is the way forward post-pandemic.