Hospitality need significant shift: Indian School of Hospitality director

SAMARKAND: Hospitality education has been a victim of being stereotyped as vocational training and there is a need for a significant shift in this perception, according to Kunal Vasudeva, managing director of Indian School of Hospitality (ISH). Vasudeva made the comments while delivering the keynote address at the "Global Education Forum" during the 25th General Assembly of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) here which concluded on Saturday.

"I was raised in the 70s, where a career in hospitality was marginalised and stigmatised and often seen as a last resort and traditional fields such as medicine law, commerce, and humanities, and even considered less preferable to a period of aimless soul-searching.

Fast forward to today, where the world is rapidly recognizing what some still hesitate to grasp. We have entered the experience economy, which is anticipated to evolve into an 8.2 trillion dollar behemoth; this isn't a niche but a transformative force that shall alter the very DNA of our economy," he said.

"It is no longer about unit economics but human economics! It's no longer the software engineer, the lawyer, or the medical professional leading this charge. It is us — the individual trained in the nuanced art and rigorous science of hospitality. But despite his broad-reaching implications the field of hospitality often finds itself compartmentalised and relegated to the realm of only vocational training. The irony is glaring that society relegates hospitality education to a mere vocation training," he added.

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Vasudeva said that the service industry has long been a victim of cultural and social biases favouring so-called hard skills or the nuanced understanding of human interaction.