Research centre for hotels and resorts opens at University of West London

The University of West London has launched the first research centre in the UK focused on hotels and resorts.

Known as the International Centre for Hotel and Resort Management, the body intends to develop the next generation of talented hospitality leaders.

It also aims to meet a research gap by looking critically at issues likely to affect the corporate management of hotels and resorts in the future.

Professor Angela Roper has been appointed as the director of the centre, which has been set up with the support of Hilton Worldwide, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Strategic Hotels and Resorts.

Since gaining a PHD at the University of Huddersfield, Professor Roper has held senior academic positions at Oxford Brookes University and, most recently, the University of Surrey. She has published over 70 academic papers.

Professor Roper, who has also worked as a hotel and leisure analyst in the City, and has been a visiting scholar at universities in Norway, Italy and the USA, said she was delighted about her appointment.

"The university already has fantastic links with industry and the establishment of the centre further cements the latter's involvement in curriculum development and research going forward.

"The appointment consolidates my more than 20 years of research into the internationalisation and strategic development of the major hotel companies and is an indication of the benefits applied research can bring to academia. The centre will seek to develop corporate managers of the future and undertake ground breaking research."

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By Janet Harmer

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