By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The enormous scope in research in the hospitality industry and tourism sector, hitherto unexplored, has come to the fore with Covid-19 pandemic throwing up the need for disaster planning and risk management, an eminent expert has said.
“Limited amount of research has so far been conducted in the tourism and hospitality sector and there is a need to link academic activity with research,” Prof. Sunil Shadev, Professor in Marketing and Responsible Enterprise in the University of Brighton, U.K., said while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a week-long Faculty Development Program organised by the School of Hotel Management (SHM), faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management of SOA Deemed to be University, held on-line on Wednesday.
Researchers, he said, could work on subjects like disaster planning and risk management the need for which surfaced after the Coronavirus pandemic struck the world. He explained to the participants as to how to remove the gap between content and pedagogy by integration and collaboration of other departments.
Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Vice-Chancellor of SOA Deemed to be University, who inaugurated the program, focused on the importance of research in the present era saying teachers needed to update their knowledge continuously. Knowledge had to be acquired the hard way, he said adding there was no short cut to learning.
Prof. Sitikantha Mishra, Advisor cum Dean of SHM, spoke on how knowledge was passed from one generation to another and stressed on the importance of research. Sandeep Budhiraja, Country Head and Research Director-Asia Pacific MMR Research Worldwide , Mumbai, highlighted as to how the process of metamorphosis occured when it came to finding an answer to a question. He emphasized on the framing of the research question and held it to be the fundamental and initial step to conduct research.
Prof. Tapan Kumar Panda, Chief Academic Officer, Ampersand Group, Mumbai and former Acting Director, IIM, Indore, explained the design of the FDP to the participants and said that the learning experience would equip them for research work. Dr. Anshuman Samal, Associate Professor, SHM, proposed the vote of thanks while Dr. Smita S. Mahapatra, Associate Professor, SHM, coordinated the program.
