Introduction

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism and hospitality industry has yet to fully recover. Hotel occupancy rates and travel interest have fluctuated from season to season and country to country, all affected by government regulations, vaccine availability and consumer confidence.

As one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic, it will likely never be the same once it has fully recovered from it. Some of the effects of the crisis are likely to be no more than an acceleration of trends that already existed in the sector, such as digitization and greater consideration of sustainability issues, but other effects may be entirely new.

Objectives

The main objective of this course is to provide a rigorous overview of selected topics that are key to understanding the present and future of the tourism and hospitality industry. The objective of the Program is to complement the previous training that students may already have if they come from Tourism related degrees (as these students are the main target audience of the Program), with a new Spanish and, for those coming from other continents, European perspective. In addition, the Program can also open students’ minds to new cutting-edge ideas that are not yet widespread in today’s industry but may soon be.

Contents

The Program will cover the following contents:

• Human resource management in Europe’s Hospitality sector:
  • Understanding the new tourism context and changes
  • Analyzing the new human resource policies
  • Knowing the main skills needed
  • Best practices of hotels HRM in Europe

• Selected topics in Hospitality Finance in Europe:
  • Valuation of hotels and valuation of hotel companies
  • The role of institutional investors in hotel ownership and in its corporate governance
  • ESG investment in hotel companies

• Environmental Policy and Sustainable Tourism:
  • The externalities of tourism and their solution through economic instruments: Environmental degradation and congestion
  • Tradable permits applied to tourism: Tradable development rights in the USA
  • Evaluation of non-market tourism values: Revealed preferences and contingent valuation methods

• Customer Experience Management in Hospitality:
  • Services marketing
  • Experiential marketing
  • Experience design in hospitality
  • Customer experience in the age of Artificial Intelligence

• Culture, history, leisure, and attractions management: from the Paseo del Prado to the Golden Triangle of Art in Madrid (Note: This module will include visits to some of the museums in the Golden Triangle of Art)

• Cutting-edge technology:
  • Cryptoeconomics and cryptoassets: Current and potential applications in hotel companies and other tourist companies
  • Metaverse and its role in tourist activities