Revolutionizing the Future of Hospitality Education at the ILHA Conference

WASHINGTON - Sept. 4, 2014 - PRLog -- The luxury hotel segment continues to record significant growth, with affluent business and leisure travelers driving the recovery of the hotel industry. Corporate groups are once again holding events at luxury resorts and high-income travelers are demanding more from their hotels as they seek unbelievable yet authentic experiences. Guests expect to discover local flavors and immerse themselves in the culture of their destination, but still want their hotel to feel like their home away from home. Faced with this ever-evolving set of challenges, hospitality has an ever-growing need for innovative leaders who can guide the industry forward.

Accordingly, we recently learned that Georgetown University is revolutionizing the way hoteliers are educated with the launch of their new Master of Professional Studies in Hospitality Management program (https://scs.georgetown.edu/departments/41/hospitality-management), which offers a creative and hands-on curriculum immersed in a global perspective. In this Washington, DC-based program, a diverse cross-section of students work on cutting-edge projects with a faculty that is hand-selected entirely from the industry. Practical and applied education at the strategic leadership level is the focal point of this curriculum, which emphasizes the balance between academic learning with experience and rolodex-building. All of this is to ensure students gain a comprehensive understanding of the constantly evolving hospitality industry.

Educational Sponsor of ILHA’s Fast Forward 2020 Conference

Georgetown is an Educational Sponsor at the International Luxury Hotel Association Fast Forward 2020 Conference (http://www.luxuryhotelconference.com/), taking place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington D.C., Sept. 22 – 23. The University will host a panel entitled “Balancing Expectations across Diverse Generations of Luxury Guests through Experiences, Design, and Service”, with Gray Shealy, Executive Director of the Masters of Hospitality Management program, as moderator.

Gray told us, “the definition of ‘luxury’ today is largely dependent on whom is being addressed: sometimes it’s personalization, sometimes it’s ‘lifestyle,’ and sometimes, it is traditional opulence. Regardless, Luxury Hospitality brands and operators are at a critical point in their history, facing a diverse cross-section of guests that have unique and sometimes divergent expectations”. He will direct the session to focus on “examining overall paradigm shifts, from Millenials and Gen X to Baby Boomers and emerging global markets, and discuss how brands are starting to frame their offering, define their marketing outreach, design their guest experiences and product offering, and enhance their service delivery. Hotel leaders must not forget that there are still other significant audiences whose preferences are evolving and deserve attention from those who are now primarily focused only on Millenials.”

Barak Hirschowitz, President of the International Luxury Hotel Association added, “we are very excited that Georgetown University is playing such a pivotal role at the ILHA Fast Forward 2020 Conference and anticipate a highly engaging and thought-provoking session”.

Featured and notable panelists in the session include Dr. Mia Mulrennan, Psychologist, Georgetown faculty member, President of Rave-Worthy consulting, and author of a recent and widely read study on Generation X.  Diane McDavitt, President and Co-Founder of Luxury Link Travel Group, an expert on partnerships, and has held diverse roles with Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Air New Zealand, and Pacific Dateline Tours. Elizabeth Mullins, Vice President and Area General Manager of Ritz Carlton Hotels in Washington, DC, a renowned service authority, bringing brand, operational, and experiential perspectives to the table.  And somewhat fresh to the hospitality scene, Trevor Lynn, Chief Marketing Officer of SocialTables, is central to the success of an emerging technology start-up and is a virtuoso on personalization in the Millenial generation.

Strategies in Leadership, Brand and Asset Management, & Guest Experience Design

Georgetown’s program is located in Washington D.C., the global hub of the hotel industry, where students explore both American hospitality standards, as well as international and emerging markets, with options to focus on specialty concentration areas or customize their own series of courses from available electives.

In our discussion, Shealy noted that in this “brand-centric Experience Economy, affinity and loyalty are a cornerstone of the hospitality industry. It is imperative that leaders in the marketing and brand management side of the hospitality industry understand how to measure and analyze audiences, envision core values and missions that speak to those audiences, and create brands and engineer experiences at the corporate and customer level that inspire guests and generate loyalty.”

In a move to differentiate the program, Georgetown’s Hospitality curriculum will be one of the only Hospitality schools focusing on Brand Management and Guest Experience Engineering as one of their distinctive specialties. Among the innovative and unique classes that are slated for offer include Luxury and Lifestyle Branding, Passenger Experience Engineering, and Loyalty, amongst many others. Additional focal areas include Asset Management & Development, and Global & Regional Standards. “Instilling a transformative sense of purpose and passion in the students is a primary goal of the program,” Shealy also told us. “Graduates will be critical-thinkers with a highly-developed sense of ethical reasoning, extensive knowledge, practical expertise, and ultimately will become leaders who can strategically shape the future of the hospitality industry.”