SIA subsidy for professors' platform HTIT-EN

Professors from the Dutch public hotel schools, researchers, and technology experts come together to develop a joint research agenda around the question “How can the Dutch hospitality and tourism sector, which has a profound societal presence and encompasses a diverse range of workers and stakeholders, leverage its transversal character to generate extensive societal impact through the utilization of emerging technological innovations?"

Unique collaboration
The five leading professors join forces with more than 30 professors and researchers from 10 Dutch knowledge institutions within this platform. The participants come from various academic backgrounds, including strategic foresight, engineering, disruptive transformations, digital transformation, design, psychology and the creative industry. The platform builds on commitment from the Centre of Expertise Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality (CELTH), Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) and is connected to more than 50 SMEs in hospitality and technology.  Through this diversity, the researchers expect to showcase how the hospitality & tourism industry can become an accelerator for technology-driven social impact creation. 

Menno Stokman, director of CELTH, Centre of Expertise Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality, focuses on increasing knowledge and sustainability within the broader leisure economy, says: “The Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality domain requires transversal technological innovation, given its' impacts and challenges. Great to see that five leading academies in hospitality and tourism and CELTH work together and align their expertise and efforts, with lasting innovation and with that sustainable development of the domain as the ultimate goal"

Dr. Alexander Lennart Schmidt, Professor of Technological Innovation at Hotelschool The Hague: “We are the first initiative that unites professors from all public Dutch hospitality schools with a broad array of researchers and industry partners. Together we will engage in practice based research on the potential of technological innovation in hospitality and tourism. Such a setup is unique on a global scale. We are enthusiastic to create knowledge about how technology can be a catalyst for positive societal impact in hospitality and tourism – and beyond.” 

“This platform is a foundational step for us to bring partners across institutes in The Netherlands together to create novel initiatives that will drive technological development and innovation in our industries and society”, Dr. Dai-In Danny Han”, Professor of Research Centre Future of Food, Hotelmanagement School Maastricht, Zuyd University.

“If you think today is about exponential change in technology, this is nothing compared to tomorrow. The new platform allows researchers and partners to make sense of the future for the betterment of industry and future innovations.” Dr. Ian Yeoman, Professor of Disruption, Innovation and New Phenomena in Hospitality and Tourism, Hotel Management School, NHL Stenden.

Dr. Jessika Weber Sabil, Professor of Digital Transformation in Cultural Tourism, Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences:
“This platform will be a place of experimentation and exploration of digital spheres. We are not only bringing together leading researchers in the field but built bridges to the tourism, hospitality and creative industries.