The global travel, tourism and hospitality industry sits today at the nexus of multiple contradictory forces— they include: evolving customer needs and preferences, rapid changes in technologies, ever-changing competitive dynamics, cost pressures, regulatory changes, uncertainly in capital markets, demand, pricing and distribution channel uncertainty, sustainable operations, social media and mobile innovations, and much more.

In the midst of this complex global environment, hospitality, travel and tourism managers, executives, and researchers must set a strategic and intentional course forward to achieve the goals of service excellence and performance growth.

As the industry works to find its firm footing while it is simultaneously being pushed and pulled in multiple directions, the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit 2012 will focus on strategies and approaches for navigating forward.