Slate of Office 2018-19

I currently hold the position of International Projects Coordinator at Ecole Supérieure Internationale de Savignac, France. I develop new partnerships and do pastoral care for students who look for internships abroad. I have also been the MBA Programme Leader at Savignac for 7 years.

I have been an active member of EuroCHRIE since 2014, when I was appointed Area Consultant for France. In 2016, I held the position of interim Secretary and have been elected as Honorary Secretary in 2017

EuroCHRIE has quickly become my extended family, and I firmly believe that all together we can expand our network and increase opportunities. Since we are all from different countries, our take on research, events, industry-related issues and organisation varies slightly, and I think this is our main strength.

We have recently initiated new ways of keeping in touch with our members, while making sure we provide better quality services all year round. Our annual conferences have always been the main event for our members, and while we need to make sure that we keep improving what we offer during our conferences, we also need to strengthen our communication on social media and work thoroughly on providing added value to existing and potential members, industry professionals and educators, researchers and instructors. I strongly believe this is our duty to facilitate interaction between all our members but also to facilitate access to our services to emerging markets and students.

If I am elected as Vice President, then President and Immediate Past President, I will proactively work on the following:

• Innovative development of EuroCHRIE conferences, webinars and online seminars.
• Expand all possible ways to strengthen the links between all of our members.
• Facilitate access to students and emerging markets

Eda Gürel is the Acting Chair of the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management in Bilkent University. She completed her master’s degree at the University of Surrey. Having been successful in the exam held by the Inter-University Council in Turkey, she received her Associate Professorship in 2017.

Eda has publications in the Annals of Tourism Research, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the European Journal of Marketing. An active external consultant for the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Eda is a member of EuroCHRIE for more than 12 years and a part of it as Area Consultant for Turkey since 2007

It is an honor for me to be a candidate for the office of Vice President. I am very happy to be part of this inclusive tourism network involving members from Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and Africa. Embracing academics, prospective educators, industry and community members of the world’s largest industry, it contributes to research, international exchange and understanding and prosperity without distinction as to sex, race, language or religion.

With a closer cooperation and coordination, we can close the gap between the needs of the industry, education and research. By keeping its members at the forefront of trends, EuroCHRIE can provide a win-win platform through education and research for a sustainable and just tourism planning and development for the future. We should also establish more collaboration with leading hospitality journals and publish special issues around conferences to disseminate knowledge.

In these ways, EuroCHRIE can mark its distinction as the leading organization for the advancement of the tourism industry, research and education.

Henri Kuokkanen is a senior lecturer and researcher in the fields of revenue management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) at Institut Paul Bocuse. He is also taking the final steps of his PhD at Leeds Beckett University. His industry experience includes treasury and business control management in the global telecoms industry; he has also been a partner in a consulting company focusing on transforming CSR into a competitive advantage. His main field of research and PhD candidacy focuses on the business potential that responsibility offers from a consumer perspective. He has also published articles in the area of revenue management with a focus on tourism destinations. Additionally, Henri is a co-founder of an NGO that supports rural livelihood development in Mali.

As the Director of Membership from 2015 to 2017 I had an excellent opportunity to get insights into our members’ needs and expectations toward EuroCHRIE. Nominated as the Interim Director of Education last October, I have started to employ this understanding in practice to develop our offering to educators. First, together with our partners, I aim to create a library of educational content for members to use in their daily work. Next, together with the Director of Research, I am working to ensure that education-focused content and research complement each other at the annual conference, and further to localise EuroCHRIE to members who cannot attend the annual conference. A third initiative includes integrating students better to our organization, in addition to the PhD workshop already planned for the Dublin conference. I sincerely hope to get the opportunity to work on and conclude these projects; I believe they would add significant value to our members!

Associate Professor Dorthe Simonsen has been undertaking different roles as both lecturer, project manager, researcher, supervisor and coordinator in her past 6 years at Lillebaelt Academy of Applied Sciences, Denmark, on top of 15 years of experience in the professional hospitality industry in Denmark. Her area of expertise is hostmanship, which is founded on a deep interest in human interactions and the importance of creating lasting and memorable experiences for guests. Besides lecturing, Dorthe is developing hostmanship training for companies in the Danish tourist industry.

Dorthe has an MA in Business, Language and Culture from the University of Southern Denmark.

For four years, I have had the opportunity to attend the annual EuroCHRIE conference, and after each conference I have returned home feeling inspired and fully updated on the latest development in the hospitality industry for the benefit of my students, colleagues and business partners.

Both as a lecturer in international hospitality management, but also in my previous and present efforts to educate the industry, I aim to pass on highly valuable knowledge and am therefore constantly seeking to educate myself to educate others.

If elected as Director of Education, I would be honoured to contribute to the continued education of EuroCHRIE members by ensuring that conferences are always relevant and bring inspiration and new knowledge to members. It would also be a great honour for me to be given the opportunity to assist in further developing the educational profile of a highly renowned organisation.

Florian Hummel looks back at industry experience in airport marketing and the international car rental business. He studied at The University of Brighton (BA Travel Management), Cranfield University (MSc Air Transport Management) as well as The University of Sheffield (Doctor of Education). After leaving the industry Florian was involved in setting up a business school in Germany which he directed for nine years before he took on academic roles as Professor and Dean at Cologne Business School which he subsequently led as Managing Director. Florian currently holds a Professorship at IUBH. He is based in Berlin and is the academic director of four IUBH campus locations in Germany.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to offer my services to EuroCHRIE. As with any academic organisation, it lives and strives through its members as well as officers and it will not only be a privilege to support the EuroCHRIE family and with this our network and the development of knowledge in hotel and restaurant education, but it will also be a valuable experience to help expanding and to help growing EuroCHRIE as the board member responsible for marketing. These are exciting times for any marketeer and it will be one of my main aims to develop our organisation and community by enhancing our digital marketing initiatives across various platforms to remain and enhance our presence and communication with current members, academia, industry as well as prospective future members