Transforming the hospitality sector through innovation

The 33rd CHME Conference aims to offer a distinctive forum where participants from academia, industry, government, and other sectors can actively exchange, share, and challenge ideas through cutting-edge research on hospitality industry. The conference theme, ‘Transforming the hospitality sector through innovation’, is of great relevance for everyone in hospitality and tourism education.

At the heart of our conference lies the ambition to delve deeply into the modern challenges faced by the hospitality industry. We aim to encourage meaningful discussions and nurture fresh viewpoints in a field that is continuously adapting on a global scale. We're keen to receive a diverse range of submissions, from theoretical and empirical research papers to methodological studies and in-depth case studies that focus on particular nations.

Our expectation is that these contributions will touch upon and explore the theoretical underpinnings, practical considerations, and advanced methodologies inherent to the realms of hospitality management.

Registration is now open. The early bird registration deadline is 21 April 2025, while the final registration deadline is 6 May 2025.

Draft programme outline

Submission Guidelines:

All submissions must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. All abstracts, posters and full papers must be submitted via the EasyChair conference management system.

• Full papers should be 1500 words long (excluding notes, references, author details, keywords and abstract). Article title, an abstract of 120 words, 6-8 keywords should be included in the main manuscript. Author details such as name(s), poster and email address should be supplied separately via the Easychair system. Revised full papers should not exceed 2500 words.
• Posters should be in A1-size with a 500-word summary. Name, title, introduction, contribution to theory/practice, methodology/methods, results (if applicable) and conclusion (if applicable) should be included in the poster.

Important Dates and Deadlines

• Deadline for paper or poster submissions by:  11 February 2025.
• Feedback on submissions (before/by): 25 February 2025.
• Deadline for the final paper submission: 25 March 2025.

Note: Authors should amend the work in light of the reviewers' comments and then submit the final version to the system.

Dr Guy Lincoln

Dr Guy Lincoln is a hospitality ‘lifer’ who has spent 40 + years doing every kind of industry job imaginable from washing pots and cooking steaks to training, consulting and researching, as well as owning and operating his own hospitality businesses. Primarily though, between 1987 and 2019 Guy was an educator at Leeds Beckett University. Over the course of this time he was responsible for the development and delivery of training and qualifications for hospitality businesses to the value of +£700,000, securing and delivering +£600,000 of European Regional Development Fund – Objective 4 funding and approaching £200,000 of other commercial and funded research projects. 

In 2017 Guy invested in a new hospitality business, a venture that was a momentous failure and which prompted him to change the trajectory of the last years of his career. As a result of these experiences, in 2018 he took a bursary to study full time for a PhD concerned with the complexities of decision making for equity Investment in hospitality businesses and in particular the entanglement of affect and emotion in this decision making. Since successfully completing his studies in 2023 (after a suitable period of celebratory retirement) he has worked with Professor Dorina Buda on further developing this work for publication, with a research monograph due via Routledge in Autumn 2025. 

Professor Dorina-Maria Buda

Professor Dorina-Maria Buda, a TEDx Speaker and winner of a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship, conducts research on tourism, travel and hospitality from the angle of socio-cultural theories of emotions. Professor Buda is the winner of a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in collaboration with the European Commission from 2013-2017 in value of €500,000. During 2016 - 2024, Professor Buda was also awarded an individual grant as part of the Innovation Research Incentives Scheme of the Dutch Research Council in value of €250,000 (full economic costing). 

In her research monograph Affective Tourism: Dark Routes in Conflict, as well as in her wider work published in top peer reviewed journals, Professor Buda examines dynamics of performance and experience of tourist places in areas of ongoing socio-political turmoil and conflict such as North Korea, Iran, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian West Bank, as well as in eastern Europe. In-depth understandings of the role of hospitality and emotions in such places can contribute to conflict negotiation and peace building. During her career, Professor Buda has worked at the University of Waikato in Aotearoa New Zealand, Saxion Business School, and University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In England, Professor Buda was Head of Marketing and Consumer Studies Research Centre at Nottingham Business School during 2020 - 2023, and previously she was Professor of Tourism Management and Head of the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism & Hospitality at Leeds Beckett University.

Together with Dr Guy Lincoln, Professor Buda currently works on a research monograph Affects and Hospitality Equity Investment due to be published with Routledge Taylor & Francis Autumn 2025. The book is set to be the first interdisciplinary academic work to discuss private equity investment in hospitality businesses through the lens of socio-cultural concepts of affect and emotion. 

Dr Shelagh Mooney is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her teaching philosophy emphasises the creation of positive workplace cultures and the practical application of humanistic management practices. Shelagh’s research focuses on critical hospitality studies, particularly examining the intersecting dimensions of gender, age, ethnicity, and visa status in employment through a feminist lens. She is currently involved in collaborative projects that address sustainable workforce issues at macro, meso, and micro levels. Passionate about finding innovative solutions to enduring challenges of unfair work within the tourism sector. Shelagh is dedicated to advancing research that advocates for fair pay, decent working conditions and respectful treatment for all hospitality and tourism workers.

Iis Tussyadiah is Professor of Intelligent Systems in Service, Dean of Surrey Business School, and Fellow of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence at University of Surrey. Her research focuses on the applications and implications of artificial intelligence in the services sector, particularly tourism and hospitality. Her current work covers human-AI teaming and the future of work, digital nudging, and the development of sociotechnical systems for sustainability transitions. 

Tracks and track-chairs

Our five tracks are listed below.  Within each track, we have suggested some topics but we encourage authors to propose any related topics they are interested in. Authors are free to select a track and submit research on any relevant area within the context of Hospitality, Tourism, and Events.

If you have any enquiries, please contact Dr Jennifer Chang

Prices

Travel and accommodation details

Take a look at the directions to the hotel, as well as various accommodation options for the conference.

If you are interested in staying at the Wivenhoe House Hotel (prices in document above), you can email them or call them on +441206 863 666. These rooms are not available online.