Column: Make Hawaii tourism No. 1 again — using innovative, comprehensive ‘Teaching Hotels’

The World Travel and Tourism Council forecasts 80 million new hospitality jobs created over the next decade — pointing to a vast market in hospitality training for Asia-Pacific resort destinations. Hawaii is a tourism growth success: According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2017 Hawaii visitor arrivals topped 9 million with spending at $17 billion — supporting 204,000 hospitality-related jobs statewide.

However, for such an important industry sector, Hawaii’s hospitality education has stagnated.

During the recent Hawaii Tourism Authority Global Tourism Summit that highlighted technology innovation (a Hong Kong-made talking robot), no new Hawaii hospitality laboratory or research program was announced to global visitor industry leaders.

Through partnerships with hotel owners, hotel brand operators (think Starwood) and tech firms (think Apple) melding hospitality study, research and a hotel with paying guests, a “Teaching Hotel” will put Hawaii back in hospitality-education top global rankings.

In 1923 the American Hotel Association first proposed a “Teaching Hotel” at Cornell University, the pioneer in hospitality education.

Launched a decade before Hawaii statehood, Cornell’s Statler Hotel has trained students who gain practical insights by working in the 153-room property (adjacent to the classroom building) with a conference center, three restaurants and banquet rooms. This “grandfather” of Teaching Hotels spawned new programs globally.

The Hotel ICON, owned by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management, was voted by Trip Advisor users in the top five among 300 Hong Kong hotels. This Kowloon property has modernistic rooms designed by global “icons” like Terence Conran of the “Conran” brand.

Moreover, Hotel ICON reflects a multidisciplinary curriculum — not only a hospitality “silo” focus. Students study at a unique fine-wine research laboratory and develop innovative applications at the Samsung Digital Lab for Hospitality Technology.

A Teaching Hotel does not have to be a five-star property.

After acquiring an 800-year-old castle, a Dutch hotel school hired young designers who created hotel rooms from traditional to ultra-modern (one room has a swimming elephant on the ceiling and another has a child’s swing). Not surprisingly, this historic-modern hybrid property is a visitor “hot” destination.

With 1,000 hospitality undergraduate majors, the Hilton University of Houston integrates in one building 86 hotel rooms, classrooms, a student-run restaurant, plus food and beverage labs. Students move seamlessly from lectures to evaluating food safety to greeting guests in a real, working hotel.

Drawing from experts in architecture, engineering, botany, finance and Native Hawaiian language and culture, students at a Hawaii Teaching Hotel would not only practice check-in, IT operations and online marketing, but also study host culture sensibility. Hospitality graduates with practical and cultural background are highly prized by major Hawaii hotels.

During the past two decades with soaring energy costs and water conservation, there emerged re-thinking that a hotel is a self-sustaining environment, much like a “Biosphere,” a famous Arizona eco-system experiment with its own food, energy and waste operations — a “green” model.

Aligned with this new model, Teaching Hotels offer a “wholistic” strategic approach to hotels, from design to operations to renewable energy, including LEED certification.

Today, hotel general managers are extremely sensitive to the environmental impact of their hotel properties to their surroundings.

Technology is bringing changes to the hospitality industry, which means digital skills must be integrated into training.

The Hotel ICON IT Lab reveals how partnering with computer science faculty for artificial intelligence, hotel guest research is no longer unusual, but an essential part of hospitality education to be competitive globally.

With all its hospitality resources in a global visitor destination, Hawaii should leverage the Teaching Hotel concept for local Hawaii students to bolster their resumes, ensuring Hawaii-raised GMs lead Hawaii resorts, and export “best practices” to emerging visitor destinations.

Ultimately, a Teaching Hotel will elevate Hawaii’s hospitality training ranking and become itself a top Hawaii visitor attraction — so it is a mystery why such a hotel does not exist in Waikiki, the state’s economic engine.

Ray Tsuchiyama is senior partner with GUILD, an international growth-focused business strategy consultancy.