Ways of knowing hospitality

This paper critiques the debate concerning the concept and nature of hospitality as taught within a higher education framework. The intention is to stimulate further debate, dialogue and ultimately curriculum enrichment. Specifically, the current state of the discourse focusing on the vocational and/or liberal nature of hospitality in higher education is addressed. This leads to identification of the evolving sub-fields that are currently termed as either hospitality studies or hospitality management. Argument is presented that the two are not dichotomous, and both borrow heavily from the human and social sciences. It is concluded that the primary focus of educators must be on delivering the principles that underpin, contextualise and structure a higher education experience, which in turn intellectually inspires and empowers students, engaged in curriculum that provides for the gambit of world views embodied in the vocational knowable, and the liberal unknowable, to achieve personal and professional development.