Centre for Hospitality Studies & Research
What is the Centre for Hospitality Studies & research?
The Centre for Hospitality Studies & Research (CHSR) aims to be the leader in integrated Canadian hospitality research, student focused, and experiential learning.
CHSR will have a specific focus and expertise in the challenges
and opportunities in secondary hubs and regions. 
The Centre will accomplish these ambitious goals through:
- Innovative Diploma & Undergraduate Learning
- Research & Outreach
- Innovative Professional Development Learning
The Centre will attract experienced leaders, facilitators, and researchers drawn from the industry as well as academia. CHSR will work alongside various partners to develop a thoughtleadership role within the industry, specializing in hotels and tourism in secondary hub cities and regions.
Developing Our Workforce
CHSR is built on the intention of ensuring a recognition of the importance of developing high-quality hospitality focused research and quality human capital for the hospitality industry. This mission will support the diversification of labour and solidify the Province of Alberta’s position as a hub for human capital development.
CHSR – A Unique Integrated Learning Solution
While there are examples of integrated learning environments in other parts of the world, Canada does not have a sustainable academic model that produces quality and innovative hospitality practitioners through an integrated series of learning activities, research guiding principles and hands-on learning.
Hospitality Research and Outreach
The Centre for Hospitality Studies and Research has been developed to support communities and hospitality operators to improve the quality of life of the communities they serve, while also creating profitable, memorable, and sustainable visitor experiences.
Applied research at the Centre for Hospitality Research and Studies is oriented to address the challenges and opportunities facing the hospitality and tourism industry in secondary hubs and regions. This research will include the significant need for timely, evidence-based and user-friendly data and best practices addressing a variety of topics, including:
- Labour and workforce challenges
- Climate change and sustainability
- New hospitality related technologies
- Carrying capacities
- The measurement of hospitality and visitor economy impacts
- New hospitality models
- Seasonality
- The need for integrated approaches to hospitality and tourism.
- Changing consumer preferences
In addressing these challenges, CHSR will work with a range of local, regional and global stakeholders to provide practical applied research.
Additionally, CHSR will utilize our purposed designed flexible affordable luxury hotel/resort facilities, service hotel, convention and meeting facilities and retail functions will carry out conceptual operation and design prototyping and evaluation. This research will be carried out with industry leaders in hospitality design, management and operations.
A unique dimension of CHSR is the research that will be carried out within the hotel and resort environment. This research will both inform curriculum development and share key lessons with the industry. The guests at the hotel and resort will in effectively become part of the learning environment enabling a creative and unique visitor experience.
Applied Research &
Industry Experts,
Output
Examples
- HR practices
- Energy conservation
- Tourism Trends
- Industry advances
- Education developments
- Global warming issues
- Design ideas
- Management approaches
Internet & External
Product Examples
- Tech Notes
- Newsletters
- Reports/Papers
- Background papers
- Blogs
- PD courses
- Workshops
- Conferences
CHSR Professional Development
CHSR will work with the hospitality industry, tourism operators, and economic development stakeholders to provide opportunities to obtain new skills and knowledge in order to be competitive in the quickly changing hospitality and tourism fields. Learning opportunities will also be developed for community organizations in order to assist them in becoming more sustainable and competitive within the tourism landscape.
Professional development opportunities will be provided using a range of experiential learning approaches and techniques best suited to the needs and objectives of the participants. The research and outreach activities of CHSR will inform the learning opportunities while the facilities of the overall development will serve as a canvas to observe and participate in the development of unique and creative approaches.
The Centre for Hospitality Studies and Research – Hospitality Management Diploma Program
The Centre for Hospitality Studies and Research diploma will provide students the opportunity to develop competencies in many areas including:
- Delivering exceptional customer service in hospitality operations
- Possessing a firm understanding of the reporting relationships among departments in lodging operations
- Being able to apply the appropriate accounting processes to record financial transactions, generate and interpret financial statements
- Explaining restaurant service techniques for food and beverages and the role and function of menu design
- Developing a food and beverage business and marketing plan and how to develop a marketing strategy for a hospitality operation using
traditional and digital media.
The entire diploma program has been developed and is now in the final stages of approval by the Alberta government.
The Centre for Hospitality Studies and Research – Undergraduate Degree in Hospitality Studies and Management
The CHSR undergraduate degree in hospitality studies and management will focus on preparing students for managerial careers in the hospitality industry. At CHSR the learning objective of the degree program is not to produce skilled workers at rank-and-file levels but develop graduates who will have a future mindset, be ready to enter the workforce upon degree completion and will be able to adapt to the changes in the industry. Given the interrelationship between the learning spaces and the hotel and resort learning environments, students will be provided with an innovative program experience – not available anywhere in Canada – combining leading edge curriculum with the opportunity of interacting with guests in a fully functioning hotel and resort environment. This will provide students with a distinctive learning and development advantage over many other institutions in Canada. The opportunity for students to be immersed in a hoteland resort environment will allow for real-world experience to understand risk/issues management, to better problem solve and understand the operational structures of a hotel environment.The degree will ensure that the graduates have a sound understanding and mastery of a number of areas of competency including:
- Design thinking
- The development of marketing strategies
- Hospitality trends and forces
- Human capital management
- Teamwork
- Event planning and management
- Cross-cultural communications
- Food and beverage management
- Operations management
- Accommodation management
- Supply chain management and quality control
- Technology applications.
- Financial management, financial planning, budgeting and revenue management,
- Graduates will be in a position to be effective partners in tourism destination management and development.
The degree will be offered over four years using a range of educational experiences ranging from traditional classroom settings, interactive learning, group work, work within the hotel and resort environment and problem-based learning thereby allowing each student to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies to be effective leaders in the hospitality industry.
Partners
The Center for Hospitality and Research (CHSR) has retained EHL Advisory Services to support the academic, administrative and organizational development of CHSR and align CHSR to become North America’s first EHL affiliate institute. EHL Advisory Services is the training and consultancy branch of EHL Group and draws on the experience of EHL Hospitality Business School which is recognized as the world’s best hospitality management university.
EHL serves the industry with innovative integrated learning experience in highly engaged academic environment with campuses both in Switzerland and Singapore.