Hospitality (in) education: educational encounters that matter

This viewpoint article, based on an inaugural lecture for the professorship of International Hospitality Education delivered on 11 December 2025, argues that hospitality is a foundational dimension of education, shaping the quality of educational encounters and learners’ sense of academic and social belonging. The article suggests that hospitality in education can be realised through a coherent and consistent approach to teaching and learning, a real-world learning approach and a dialogical approach. A coherent and consistent approach aligns curriculum, pedagogical and domain-specific awareness, preventing fragmented learning. A real-world learning approach promotes boundary crossing between education and industry and creates opportunities for collaboration among students, educators and practitioners. Through these collaborative learning processes, innovation, agency and identity development are fostered. And most importantly, a dialogical approach facilitates learners’ engagement with multiple perspectives, making learning reflective, relational and transformative. Looking ahead, the dialogue will increasingly redefine hospitality education. Fostering a dialogical approach will ensure that the focus remains on human interaction. Design-based learning is an educational concept that integrates the three approaches; it prevents fragmented learning, promotes meaningful learning experiences between hospitality education and industry and places dialogue at its core.