Hosting beyond the machine: Reclaiming the host in tourism and hospitality education

Tourism and hospitality (T&H) education is being reshaped by automation, algorithmic management and labour-market instability. Existing responses have emphasised digital competence, employability, AI readiness and graduate resilience, but these concerns remain weakly connected to the relational conditions of hosting. This viewpoint article addresses that gap through a host-centred framework for tourism and hospitality education. Drawing on hospitality philosophy, ethics of care and research on technologically mediated work, it links three pressures to three educational capacities. Constraints on agency correspond to relational judgement, the proceduralisation of care to ethical responsiveness and the displacement of relational value to anticipatory well-being. The framework explains why these capacities should be developed together and relates them to learning processes, pedagogical methods, assessment and organisational conditions. It is presented as a context-sensitive conceptual proposition and not as a validated curriculum model, since its application depends on local patterns of technological adoption, educational resources, labour organisation and understandings of hospitality. The article argues that preparing students for automated service environments requires more than technical proficiency. It also requires the judgement, responsibility and future preparedness needed to sustain meaningful hosting.