CHME 2025: Transforming the Hospitality Sector Through Innovation Edge Hotel School, University of Essex Colchester, UK, May 20-23, 2025

Calls for Papers

We are delighted to announce that the 33^rd CHME conference will be hosted by the University of Essex, UK, from 20^th to 23^rd May 2025.

The hospitality and tourism sector has rebounded since 2020, with many organisations and destinations experiencing pre-pandemic demand. But the disruptive impact of the global pandemic has led to structural changes, including changes to customer and employee behaviour. While some destinations thrive, others are struggling with overtourism, straining local resources and risking environmental harm. Customers’ adoption of technology has accelerated, due to the curbing of physical interactions. Meanwhile, customer service interactions have become more challenging due to increased incivility and staff shortages, compounded by the pandemic-driven exodus of workers to other industries. Despite these difficulties, the hospitality and tourism sector has an opportunity to embrace transformative change by leveraging disruptive innovation to meet evolving customer needs.

The 33^rd CHME conference aims to offer a distinctive forum where participants from academia, industry, government, and other sectors can actively exchange and challenge ideas through cutting-edge research. The conference theme, ‘Transforming the hospitality sector through innovation’, is of great relevance for everyone in hospitality and tourism education.

At the heart of our conference lies the ambition to delve deeply into the modern challenges faced by the sector. We aim to encourage meaningful discussions and nurture fresh viewpoints in a field that is continuously adapting on a global scale. We are keen to receive a diverse range of submissions, from theoretical and empirical research papers to methodological studies and in-depth case studies that focus on particular nations. Our expectation is that these contributions will explore the theoretical underpinnings, practical considerations, and advanced methodologies inherent to the realms of hospitality management.

Our five tracks are listed below.  Within each track, we have suggested some topics but we encourage authors to propose any related topics they are interested in. Authors are free to select a track and submit research on any relevant area within the context of Hospitality, Tourism, and Events.

Tracks and Track-chairs

Submission Guidelines:

All submissions must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. All abstracts, posters and full papers must be submitted via the EasyChair conference management system.

1. Full papers should be 1500 words long (excluding notes, references, author details, keywords and abstract). The article title, an abstract of 120 words, and 6-8 keywords should be included in the main manuscript. Author names, affiliations and email addresses should be supplied separately via the Easychair system. All submissions will be blind reviewed. Authors should amend the work in light of the reviewers' comments and then submit the final version to the system. Revised full papers should not exceed 2500 words.
2. Posters should be A1-size and accompanied by a 500-word summary. Author details, title, introduction, methodology/methods, results (if applicable) and conclusion (if applicable) should be included in the poster.

Important Dates and Deadlines:

• Deadline for paper and poster submissions: 13^th January 2025
• Feedback on submissions by: 3^rd February 2025
• Deadline for the final paper submissions: 10^th March 2025

For inquiries about submissions, please email Dr Jennifer Chang (y.chang@essex.ac.uk).

Please direct general questions to the CHME2025 Conference Chair, Dr Linda Lee (linda.lee@essex.ac.uk).