Sustainability and Competitiveness in the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is one of the most significant drivers of economic growth and socioeconomic advances in both developed and developing countries. This industry contributes directly to gross domestic product, job creation, income level, destination expansion, and economic development. Forecasts for 2020 indicated a promising year was ahead for this industry, but the COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic impact. Hospitality companies are experiencing one of the biggest, unprecedented crises to date, and experts must now rethink strategies to ensure these businesses’ recovery.

Sustainability and Competitiveness in the Hospitality Industry focuses on complex issues from a hotel industry perspective. It surveys existing research by reflecting on the pandemic’s impacts and generates scenarios for how to strengthen business structures. Covering a wide range of topics such as digital hospitality and tourism products, this reference work is ideal for managers, business professionals, entrepreneurs, practitioners, researchers, academicians, instructors, and students.

About the Author

Vânia Costa has a PhD in Economics from the University of Vigo, with the thesis “Regional Portuguese Airports, Local Economy and Tourism Development”, a MSc in Industrial Economics and Business fromUniversity of Minho and a degree in Economics from University of Minho. Coordinator of the “Profile and Trends of Human Capital in the Tourism Sector” project. She is an Adjunt Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism of Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (Barcelos, Portugal). She is a Researcher at CiTUR - Centre for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism, Portugal; Member of the research unit GOVCOPP - Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, University of Aveiro, Portugal; and also Researcher of the UNIAG - Applied Management Research Unit. Her current research interests include Tourism Research, Sustainable Tourism, Tourism and Economic Development, Economic Analysis of Investment Projects in Tourism, Competitiveness in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry, Human Capital in Tourism, Health and wellness Tourism and Transport Economics.

Carlos Costa is Full Professor (Professor Catedrático), Head of the Department of Economics, Management Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT) of the University of Aveiro. He has more than 25 years of academic and professional experience in Tourism and planning. He is the head of the Tourism Research Group of the Research Center in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP) and the leader of the PhD Tourism Programme of the University of Aveiro. He is also Editor of the Journal of Tourism & Development (Revista de Turismo e Desenvolvimento) and coordinator of the assessment and accreditation of the university tourism courses of the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES). Since 2008, he is the Scientific Coordinator of the “idtour-unique solutions” –tourism spin-off company (private sector) located in the University, responsible for the transference of knowledge and innovation to the tourism sector. Carlos is involved in a number of national and international tourism projects in the areas of Tourism Planning and Development, Policy and Strategies; Tourism Management; Tourism Innovation; Gender in Tourism and Education and research in tourism.