School of Tourism and Service Management

School of Tourism and Service Management

Welcome to the School of Tourism and Service Management at Modul University Vienna

Since 20107 we have been at the forefront of tourism education, committed to offering students an unparalleled multidisciplinary learning experience. Our faculty comprise ls of leading researchers and educators from Austria and beyond. Actively engaged in international scholarly and professional networks (See publications and projects), they offer our students access to cutting-edge research and industry perspectives, empowering them to become future leaders in tourism and service sectors.

About

At the School of Tourism and Service Management we strive to achieve our educational goals. Our study programs are designed to equip students with the  management competencies and leadership skills to thrive in the global tourism industry. We prioritize staying ahead of industry trends, enabling our graduates to confidently navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities of the ever-evolving tourism landscape.  

Through a combination of theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and real-world experiences, our students are prepared to excel in international careers within the hospitality and tourism sectors. Whether it's mastering management strategies, embracing innovation, or understanding the intercultural dynamics of the industry, our programs empower students to make a positive impact in their chosen fields.  

Join us at the School of Tourism and Service Management, where academic excellence and industry relevance converge to shape the future leaders of the global tourism industry.  

Faculty members
Adjunct Faculty and Research Associates

Advisory Board

Mr. Karim Jalloul
Entrepreneur
Drag
Mr. Norbert Kettner
Director of the Vienna Tourist Board
Ms. Gabriele Stowasser
Director of National and international affairs
Ms. Martina Maly-Gärtner
UBM Managing Board
Mr. Michael Widmann
CEO PKF Hotelexperts Vienna
MR. KARIM JALLOUL
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Karim Jalloul moved as a child with his family to Austria. He graduated from the International Center for Hospitality Management MODUL in Vienna in 1993. After working his way through hotel operations, Karim held various management and executive positions as well as founder & shareholder in the Hospitality Industry, such as an Advisor to the Management Board and Owner’s Representative for a privately-held luxury hotel group.  He worked for companies such as Country Inns & Suites by Radisson, Marco Polo Hotels & Resorts, Lifestyle Living Hotels & Residences, Lake’s Hotel (on Wörthersee) Austria and the Kneissl Ski brand. In addition to his management positions, he worked as a lecturer at the International Center for Hospitality MODUL in Vienna from 2000 to 2020. Furthermore, he is a member of the Executive Club of the College of Higher Education Vienna, Co-Chairman of the Industry Advisory Board of Modul University, Member of the Advisory Board of Green Tourism Group and an Ambassador for Teach for Austria. Karim holds the position of Vice-Chairman of the “Dr. Michael Häupl Förderungsfonds” since its founding in 2009, a fund which supports higher education for students in need. Karim lives in Austria. He is married and has two sons. 
MR. NORBERT KETTNER
Norbert Kettner was born in 1967 and grew up in Jenbach, Tyrol. He has been the Vienna Tourist Board’s Director of Tourism since September 1, 2007. He previously held high-level positions in private companies like Wirtschaft, kunst und kultur GmbH, which fosters creative businesses in Vienna, and in the public administration, where he served from 1993 to 2003 as a press relations officer for the then Executive City Councilor of Finance and Deputy Mayor Sepp Rieder. 
 From 1997 to 2007, Kettner was a member of the board of directors of the Life Ball. He is now on the board of the Austro-Israeli Society and the supervisory board of Stadt Wien Marketing GmbH. He has been on the board of trustees for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation since February 28, 2010.
MS. GABRIELE STOWASSER
Senat der Wirtschaft 

Board of directors Senat der Wirtschaft; Director – National and international affairs. 
MS. MARTINA MALY-GÄRTNER
Martina Maly-Gärtner, MRICS, joined the Managing Board of UBM Development AG as COO on 1 September 2021 and is responsible for the areas hotel, human resources and insurance. As part of her international career, she has been accountable for the hotel portfolio and strategy development of Arabella Hospitality with its head office in Germany as COO since 2018. Prior to that, she led the European-focused tourism consulting and hotel development company Michaeler & Partner in Vienna as Managing Director for 8 years. In addition, Maly-Gärtner has 10 years of operational hotel management experience in America, the Middle East and Europe with internationally recognised hotel chains. 
MR. MICHAEL WIDMANN
Michael Widmann is Managing Partner of PKF hotelexperts Vienna, part of Pannell Kerr Forster, one of the biggest auditing and consulting companies worldwide. He is a graduate of the University of Applied Sciences in Munich and Washington State University (Pullman/USA). Michael Widmann started his career in the hospitality industry as a Management trainee at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in Singapore & Bangkok and later on was Assistant F&B Manager at Stouffer Hotels & Resorts in Seattle before becoming Consultant/Manager at PKF Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Munich and Managing Director of PKF hotelexperts in Munich. His focus of activities is feasibility studies for hotel projects, valuations of hotels/hotel groups, hotel project development and hotel management/operating contracts. Moreover, he is lecturing at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich and other universities in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. He is a German citizen and speaks a variety of European languages. 

Research Focus

Sustainability and resilience of tourism

Sub-topics: environmental sustainability (CO2 emissions), resilience and social aspects of sustainability (mobilities, migration, acculturation, well-being), effects of community-based ecotourism

Research in this area proposes to investigate drivers and competencies that lead to innovation in tourism from three different perspectives i) related to organizational, ii) relational and iii) destination-level aspects are pivotal in developing in a smart way and creating resilience. Given challenges such as shortage of skilled labor, mobility, migration and other adverse effects on the tourism/service industry, research needs to address these issues. We want to gather further understanding and recognize which human capabilities, internal processes, and external collaborations foster tourism development.

Further, we focus on the impact and the sustainability of the different market interventions and offer solutions for improvements. The quantification of the policy effects is based on impact analysis, one of the department’s core competencies. As an evaluation base for most of the measures we developed the Tourism Marketing Information System (TourMIS). TourMIS is crucial for our tourism analyses and leading engagement in forecasting. TourMIS is also widely internationally accepted and is used by the European Travel Commission (ETC) as well as numerous DMOs. 

Socio-economic aspects of tourism 

Sub-topics: tourism economics, demand, performance, impact analysis, Airbnb and the sharing economy. 

At the School of Tourism and Service Management we are attempting to better understand the forces and factors that determine the competitiveness of tourism destinations. In this research field we focus on different economic, environmental, and social aspects of destinations with the goal of improving the strategic decision making of tourism planners. Some of the methods to measure the competitiveness of destinations include benchmarking destinations based on traditional key performance indicators such as arrivals and occupancy rates, but also non-traditional, innovative indicators, such as website metrics of inpidual destinations, are investigated. As the benefits of definitional systems of destination competitiveness are limited, cause-effect relationships are tested.

ICT in tourism and hospitality

Sub-topics: ICT support in tourism and hospitality marketing and management, UGC, social media, extended reality technologies (AR, VR), data systems/data spaces

Digitalization has had a profound impact on the tourism industry. The integration of online booking platforms, AI-driven recommender systems, (real-time) data analytics, and the rise of the sharing economy have revolutionized the industry, changing how we develop and consume travel experiences. Several of our faculty members actively delve into these transformative trends to leverage the potential of digital technology for creating value for tourism stakeholders, facilitating resilience, and narrowing the persistent digital pide in the tourism industry. The core research topics include:

Smart tourism management systems, including tourism management information systems such as TourMIS or the European Tourism Data Spaces initiative to facilitate the interoperability of data and inclusivity of digital systems across Europe.

Digitalization of tourism operations, including implementation of robots in hotels, use of extended reality technologies (AR/VR) for travel, or digitalization of art experiences.

Data science for tourism, including data analytics and recognizing patterns in data. For example, topic modeling to gain insights into value propositions, sentiment analysis for destination preferences, or destination image profiling with social media data.

Visitor behavior

Sub-topics: consumer attitudes and behavior, consumer experiences, experience design, hospitality and tourism management models of visitors' behavior, Airbnb and the sharing economy, value creation, service failure and recovery, and employee and customer outcomes.

This research area circles around understanding how travelers, tourism sector employees, and tourism companies make decisions, behave, and interact within destination and travel contexts; what factors influence travelers' preferences, choices, motivations, and subsequent service evaluations, such as satisfaction, perceived value, or service quality. The faculty engaged in this research domain builds their research around the following topics: understanding reactions to service failures or service recoveries, uncivil or destructive consumer behavior, sustainable choices, and sustainable behavior. Additionally, we explore the travelers' reactions and the efficacy of solutions aimed at fostering sustainable behavior while ensuring engaging positive experiences.

Strategic destination development

Sub-topics: strategic destination marketing and management, tourism development, management science applications to travel and tourism, smart destination management, service innovations.

Innovative destinations assure sustainable development, offer cutting-edge technological infrastructure, are accessible to everyone, and integrate the visitor with the location to provide a stellar experience balanced with the resident's quality of life. Research in this field is focusing on supporting smart development in urban and rural areas, respecting the needs of all stakeholders involved.

Projects

  • Data Space for Tourism  
  • SmartCulTour  
  • ITAG 
  • Dynamic Capabilities in Tourism 
  • TourMIS  
  • To Ban or Not To Ban: ICT in Museums and Galleries

Student Recruitment Advisors

Andrada, Eduardo, Max and Jessica
Recruitment@Modul.ac.at

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