Towards the end of 2025, Singaporean news network Channel News Asia highlighted an increase of 14 percent among students opting to pursue both associate and bachelor’s degrees in tourism and hospitality.

This was a timely development:  in Singapore alone, both tourism and hospitality have ramped up hiring thanks to the sectors’ post-pandemic recovery.

At local job fairs and the national hiring portal, openings at hotels, attractions, and travel companies made up to 75 percent of the positions offered as of Q2-2025.

But the report also pointed this out: “There is a shortage of young talents, especially among locals into the industry. [Hence, it] is important for us to engage young talents, to let them know that the hotel industry is ever-changing.”

This story isn’t just being told in Singapore, but practically everywhere in the world and especially in countries whose economies are highly dependent on tourism and hospitality.

To paraphrase an oft-quoted line from Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, the youth are the hope of the industry, but getting them into it and encouraging them to stick to it for the long haul are where the challenges lie.

What’s the problem?

Tourism and hospitality education are nothing new: the world knows of the great training centres in France and Switzerland which have branched out into Southeast Asia and West Asia.

Nowadays, with luxury hospitality growing significantly since the end of the pandemic, many institutions the world over are ramping up their curricula and focusing on training their students for this particular sector.

However, training future employees in the precepts of luxury hospitality management at the collegiate level presents unique academic, psychological, and operational hurdles. 

Chief among these is needing to develop an innate sense of emotional intelligence and anticipation among students who may have never experienced luxury themselves.

The challenge of teaching luxury to those who have never experienced it

Experts point out that there are several key issues that universities and vocational training institutes need to consider with regard to training students for careers in the industry, especially the luxury sector.

An emotional and behavioural gap is one and this is a challenge for those teaching anticipatory service.

Think of it this way: standard hospitality relies on checklists, but luxury demands predicting unexpressed needs

Cultivating emotional intelligence is also proving to be a struggle, especially among students whose educational experience shifted to extended periods of online learning sans physical interaction throughout the pandemic.

This is especially challenging as those seeking a career in hospitality need to be able to subtle micro-expressions and shift their tone instantly.

Meanwhile, the challenge of inculcating soft skills like natural poise, grace, and sophisticated conversation has become exponentially more difficult in contemporary times, especially as many students opting for the course have not had the opportunity to see such skills in play, nor have they been in environments that qualify as luxurious.

Curricular constraints

On top of that challenge, classroom learning for luxury hospitality struggles to keep up with a rapidly evolving industry.

Case in point: most tourism and hospitality course books have yet to be upgraded to cover the use of modern luxury technologies, ultra-personalised CRM tools, and AI guest profiling.

Also, in the contemporary context, coursework needs to balance creative, high-touch service design with brutal asset management and profit margins.

Finally, there remains a human resources challenge: assembling a faculty that possesses both advanced academic doctorates and extensive, recent luxury executive experience is harder now as most specialised academics retired or opted for a career shift during the pandemic.

Harsh industrial realities

It should be noted at this point that a number of schools, particularly within the Asia Pacific, struggle to maintain high-end, on-campus simulation labs as the cost of maintenance continues to rise alongside global inflation.

At the same time, not all schools are able to establish high-quality internship pipelines with ultra-luxury brands.

Such matters require deep institutional networks and strict vetting, both of which can push smaller, less funded institutions to the brink.

Likewise, there is the need to manage the expectations of the current generation.

For the mobile native Gen Z, educators need to align modern student desires for work-life balance with the 24/7, high-stress realities of luxury operations.

On paper, this can be seriously daunting, but hospitality and tourism education has maintained its resilience over the centuries.

With that said, these current issues could be just another bump on the road to progress and growth.