TEACHING TECH

摘要

What's behind our industry's technology deficiencies? One is systemic underinvestment, especially in mobile, next-gen and cloud applications. The other is the shortage of hospitality-schooled digital technologists and strategists that can guide adoption. How many hospitality schools today teach technology courses? How many offer professional development technology courses and certifications? Only a few. A few years back, NYU's Tisch Center of Hospitality launched graduate and undergraduate hospitality technology courses and started building a Hospitality Innovation Lab. Les Roches Global Hospitality in Switzerland offers a master's in hospitality strategy and digital transformation. I am privileged to teach at both of these programs, which are a great start to educating future hoteliers and providing our industry with digital technologists. I am not preaching for hospitality schools to start teaching IT and software engineering, computer sciences or PhD-level data sciences. But we need to create the next generation of technologists who understand hospitality business applications and can assess the tech needs of an organization, devise a strategy and optimal tech stack, evaluate and select the most appropriate solutions, and oversee implementation and ongoing integrations. Hospitality school graduates should be intimately familiar with how to use technology to improve customer service and operational efficiencies; lower labor, operational and distribution costs; and increase revenue.