Editorial

Citation

(2013), "Editorial", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/whatt.2013.40805baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Volume 5, Issue 2

It is not easy to assemble a large group of senior practitioners and academics for a discussion about key issues and industry trends and it is even more difficult to organize a collaborative project that fully explores a question like: “What innovations are needed in the Canadian hotel industry and how might they be implemented to secure the industry’s future?”. I should like to congratulate Chandi Jayawardena for accomplishing these outstanding achievements and thank him for organizing the initial roundtable discussion event and leading the writing team. I should also like to thank all the contributors for sharing their insights and expertise and for their efforts in producing a detailed and authoritative collection of articles. I feel sure that this theme issue will greatly benefit the Canadian hospitality and tourism industry.

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 TeareManaging Editor, WHATT

What innovations are needed in the Canadian hotel industry and how might they be implemented to secure the industry’s future?

This theme issue is dedicated to Canada. The foundation was laid during a well-attended Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) roundtable discussion between industry leaders and hospitality educators in May 2012 hosted by Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This is the fourth WHATT roundtable to be held in Canada since 2002. Heads of Hospitality and Tourism Ontario (HOHTO), a provincial body of all the deans and academic chairs responsible for tourism, hospitality and culinary arts programs in 24 community colleges funded by the province of Ontario sponsored the event. HOHTO is an influential body and is responsible for a population of 13,741 current students intending to make a career in the tourism and hospitality industry. The WHATT Canada roundtable 2012 had 12 senior panellists, six from industry and six from academia. These panellists were carefully chosen based on their expertise in one or more of six topic areas:

1. 1.

   Sustainable development.

2. 2.

   International hotel management.

3. 3.

   Hotel administration.

4. 4.

   Hotel operations.

5. 5.

   Hotel investment and financial management.

6. 6.

   Hotel marketing.

All 12 roundtable panellists became co-authors of articles related to their respective expertise. In addition, 11 more experts joined the writing team. Among the 22 Canadian authors who worked with me on this project, 11 authors are senior industry leaders from 11 organisations. The other 11 authors are academics with significant industry experience gained prior to their careers as academics. In view of this, a key strength of the eight papers in this theme issue is the expert viewpoints they contain - based on significant industry experience. The 18 Canadian organisations represented by the 23 authors can be segmented as:

• •

  Four hotel companies.

• •

  Three consulting firms.

• •

  One national association.

• •

  One provincial institute.

• •

  One hotel investment company.

• •

  One hotel magazine publisher.

• •

  One federal government agency.

• •

  Two universities.

• •

  Four community colleges.

I should especially like to thank three organisations that helped me to produce and edit this theme issue: my former employer, George Brown College, for continuing to provide logistical support to me for three months after I left their employment; Algonquin College, for hosting the WHATT roundtable, and; Heads of Hospitality and Tourism Ontario (HOHTO) for sponsoring the roundtable. I also thank Altaf Sovani, Chair of the School of Hospitality and Tourism, Algonquin College for moderating the roundtable and the team of Canadian peer reviewers from George Brown College: Hilde Zimmer, Chair – School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and Professors Dr Paula Johnson-Tew, Dr Annika Hannan, Dr Karen Ekstein and Dr Maria Banyai. Finally I owe my very special thanks for her tireless work and outstanding editorial assistance to my former Assistant, Sara Cameron.

I sincerely hope that these eight thought-provoking articles from Canada will be read, enjoyed and used by industry leaders, consultants, researchers, academics and students.

About the Theme Editor

Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena PhD, FIH, CHE is President of Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Until recently he was the Associate Dean of the Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts, George Brown College, Toronto, Canada. Formerly he held professorships at Ryerson University (on a faculty exchange), the Canadian School of Management and Niagara College. He has also held visiting professorships in the UK, USA, Jamaica, Guyana, Sri Lanka and Switzerland, as well as senior management positions in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, the Caribbean and North America, including 12 years as the general manager of five premier hotels. He is a Past President of the world’s largest professional association for hotel managers, HCIMA (now the Institute of Hospitality, UK). Dr Jayawardena has co-authored and co-edited 16 books and journal theme issues, and authored or co-authored 91 journal articles and book chapters. He has also presented at conferences and seminars in 38 countries.

Chandana (Chandi) JayawardenaTheme Editor