Abstract:

It is imperative that hospitality and tourism students understand the importance of sustainable initiatives in the industry. This paper focuses on an applied project at a Swiss higher education institution undertaken by 4^th semester undergraduates in collaboration with a specific innovative hotel chain to imagine out-of-the-box awareness-raising campaigns to save water in some of its properties. This paper reflects on the way project design and teaching practice were implemented and considers feedback from the faculty and students involved. Authentic projects are shown to be valuable for all parties, particularly if undertaken with a solid well-paced andragogical framework. However,  climate-change fatigue might be impacting on students’ motivation and willingness to engage with real-world sustainability projects leading to a need for educators and their industry partners to implement creative solutions to enthuse their students in the future.

Keywords:

Applied projects, sustainability, project-based learning, climate-change fatigue, hospitality and tourism education