TEDU25: Transforming Tourism and Hospitality through Education Terme Čatež Conference Center Brežice, Slovenia, May 14-16, 2025

Faculty of Tourism University of Maribor is organizing an international scientific conference TEDU25: Transforming tourism and hospitality through education. The conference will take place in Brežice, Slovenia, from Wednesday, the 14th of May, to Friday, the 16th of May 2025.  

Technological advancements, climate change, health crises, political instability, changing travelling behaviours, and evolving workforce expectations have, in recent years, influenced and transformed tourism and hospitality in different ways. This trend will only continue in the future. This places an important onus on tourism and hospitality higher education to develop leaders who can navigate the complexities of tourism and hospitality. Arguably, this requires a sort of tourism and hospitality education that balances vocational and liberal education and puts purposefulness, mindfulness, and ethics at the forefront. 

However, at the same time, higher education in tourism and hospitality has and will continue to, face challenges that can inhibit the potential for institutions to provide such an education. Central to this, higher education institutions find themselves needing to address industry and societal needs whilst increasingly facing neoliberal pressures that force institutions to focus on narrow, individual employability/business needs. Within this neoliberal higher education context, institutions are pushed towards being more market-oriented, entrepreneurial, flexible and frictionless.  

Micro-credentials are one of the responses to the industry’s needs. They represent small, flexible, skills-based learning units that are stand-alone and stackable. Universities excitedly develop and exert them, while national and international educational policies advocate for faster adoption and implementation. However, many questions arise when micro-credentials are introduced in the theory and practice, redefining purposefulness and value-based education of tourism and hospitality. 

Thus, tourism and hospitality higher education are yet again at a crossroads. In this context, institutions must attend to industry and societal needs, evolving workforce expectations, and national and international policies for green transition. Green competencies, digital skills, lifelong learning (e.g., the shift toward microcredentials), and impactful knowledge transfer have become the core of designing new curricula. Yet, the fast pace of transitions and implementations makes tourism education follow suit without the time for considerate reflection on the impact on learners and educators.

The conference seeks to stimulate critical debate on current trends in tourism education, and explore the fundamental question of the future of tourism education. What are the synergies between tourism and hospitality education and industry? Does tourism and hospitality education have a future? How is tourism and hospitality education being transformed through micro-credentials? Are we, as educators, capable of envisioning, designing and implementing curricula for future leadership with transformative powers that will not succumb to neoliberal practices?

Submission Guidelines

To participate in the conference as a speaker, the authors may submit:

• An abstract (500 words) AND
• An extended abstract (1,500 words) OR a full paper (4,000–6,000 words)

Expressions of interest and submissions should be made via online form.

The abstract should clearly state the objective of the presentation, the (preliminary) findings and their significance to the call. The recommended structure of the abstract: title, introduction, method, findings/discussion, conclusion, and keywords. The author’s name, affiliation(s), and e-mail address of should be included.

One author may submit and present a maximum of two (2) papers. At least one of the authors must register for the conference if the submission is to be included in the final conference programme.

All accepted abstracts and extended abstracts can be presented at the conference. Extended abstracts submitted by April 7, 2025, can be published in the conference proceedings e-book. Submitted full papers will be considered for Best Paper Award, and junior researchers for Best Early Career Researcher Award.

The TEDU25 Conference is being organized as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan pilot project activity ‘Flexible Forms of Education: Green Transition and Tourism 5.0’.

There is no participation fee; however, registration is mandatory.

Accommodation options and various additional activities during the conference will be presented to participants in early 2025.

List of Topics

• Sustainable education: How can the interdependence of social, economic and ecological well-being lead to transformative learning?
• Future and green tourism competencies: What knowledge, skills and competencies will be essential for the future of the tourism industry? How are the green and sustainable values embedded in tourism curricula, syllabi and learning outcomes to promote tourism’s ethical and responsible development?
• Purposeful and meaningful tourism and hospitality education: What is the role of tourism education in today’s world? Does it serve a meaningful purpose? How should tourism curricula evolve to meet future demands?
• Microcredentials in tourism: What are the practices, the experiences, and the critical considerations for using micro-credentials in tourism education? How do micro-credentials shape lifelong learning in the tourism industry? How do micro-credentials enhance educational theory in tourism and hospitality?
• Knowledge ecosystems: What are the opportunities and challenges of knowledge transfer and co-creating curricula with the industry? What is the role of public, private, and civil sectors in tourism in designing and delivering tourism education programs?
• New technologies and skills: How are new learning modes, such as online education, reshaping tourism education? How are emerging technologies transforming the knowledge, skills and competencies needed in the tourism industry? Is the tourism and hospitality workforce ready for upskilling?

We also invite contributions on rethinking tourism and hospitality education, exploring its disruptors and transformations through the lens of social justice, social impacts, employee wellbeing, transformative power, and critiques of the prevailing neoliberal paradigm in education

Invited Speakers

• John Tribe, Professor of Tourism at the York St John University (UK) and Professor Emeritus at the University of Surrey (UK)
• Hazel Tucker, Professor of Tourism at the University of Otago (New Zealand)
• Adele Ladkin, Professor of Tourism Employment at Bournemouth University (UK) 

Venue

The conference will be held in Terme Čatež Conference Center (Topliška cesta 35, 8250 Brežice, Slovenia)

Contact

For more information, please visit Faculty of Tourism - University of Maribor website (https://www.ft.um.si) or contact the FT UM TEDU25 Conference Organising Committee at conference.ft@um.si.