Guest editorial: What innovations would enable the tourism and hospitality industry to re-build?

Citation

Teare, R.E. (2022), "Guest editorial: What innovations would enable the tourism and hospitality industry to re-build?", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 513-514. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-12-2022-170

Given the impact of the pandemic on hospitality and tourism operations worldwide, there have been many references to the implications for industry re-building in this journal and elsewhere. I am especially grateful to Chandi Jayawardena (who has been a regular theme editor since the inception of the journal) and his colleagues Paul Willie and Suranga Silva for examining the role of innovation in this task. Chandi, Paul and Suranga and their colleagues provide a broad-ranging perspective that draws on insights from industry and academia and I should like to thank them and their writing and reviewing team for a thought-provoking exploration of the “innovation” dimension.

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development and we seek to do this by using a key question to focus attention on an industry issue. If you would like to contribute to our work by serving as a WHATT theme editor, do please contact me.

Richard Teare

Managing Editor, WHATT

What innovations would enable the tourism and hospitality industry to re-build?

The impact of the worse global pandemic in nearly a century is not yet over. However, most parts of the world are looking to a brighter future. Over the last two years, much has been written about lessons from the pandemic and strategies for re-building in various industries. This theme issue is dedicated to capturing the essence of innovation in various parts of the world in the re-building of the tourism and hospitality industry.

The theme issue features 28 authors (mainly university professors) from 12 countries who have written regional and country-related articles, spanning re-building work in 121 countries. It is our hope that industry professionals, researchers, academics and policy makers will be able to draw on the emerging best practice examples contained in this collection of articles.

The theme editors would like to thank The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM) who organize some 24 academic conferences every year and, in this context, enabled panelists at the 8th International Conference on Hospitality and Tourism Management (ICOHT) held in 2021, to contribute to this theme issue. The theme editors would also like to thank a team of peer reviewers led by Dr. Heather Clark from Niagara College, Canada, and Dr. Gillian Dale from the Brock University, Canada.

Now, let's take a trip around the world trip investigating how innovation is enabling the tourism and hospitality industry to re-build in North America, the Caribbean, Guyana, Europe, Africa, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Chandi Jayawardena, Paul A. Willie and Suranga Silva

Theme Editors

About the Theme Editors:

Dr Chandi Jayawardena is the President of Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada and the founder and administrator of the 5,000-member (from over 100 countries) Global Hospitality Forum. He has enjoyed a diverse life–living on four continents, traveling to 98 countries and presenting at conferences in 38 countries. Chandi has held leadership positions in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and North America, including the President of the world's largest professional body for the hospitality industry – HCIMA (now the Institute of Hospitality, UK). During his early career, Chandi worked as the general manager of seven top hotels and served 35 heads of state/government. Since then, he has been a university/college professor, academic chair/director, associate dean and vice president. Chandi has done consulting for over 50 organizational clients, including the European Union, USAID, Caribbean Tourism Organization, the Amazon Corporate Treaty Organization and national organizations in Sri Lanka, Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados. Chandi has authored/edited 22 books/theme issues and published over 125 academic journal articles.

Dr Paul A. Willie is a Professor in the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Sport at Niagara College Canada. Paul served five years as the President of the Ontario Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) association. He currently serves on three different professional councils with HFTP Global which has more than 5,000 members worldwide. Paul also holds eight professional certifications and has held management positions with world renowned hotel brands. He is passionate about contributing to the hospitality industry by providing his services in a wide variety of capacities in Canada and internationally. He has delivered more than 30 formal presentations, webinars, podcasts as well as authoring or co-authoring more than 20 articles and five textbooks.

Dr Suranga Silva is a professor in tourism economics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is also the coordinator of the tourism economics and hotel management programs at the University of Colombo. He is a former director general of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management. In addition, he holds various honorary positions including, secretary general of the tourism and hospitality educators and researchers association of Asia, chairman of Silk-Road Research and Tourism Development Affairs of the Association for Sri Lanka–China Social and Cultural Co-Operation and the convener of annual events such as the International Tourism Leaders' Summit, Tourism Research Conference and the Tourism Expo in Sri Lanka. He serves as a visiting professor, academic advisor and academic board member at different international universities. He has published more than 100 articles.