Hospitality schools must teach VR and AI prototyping to prep grads for hotel tech jobs

The hotel industry is adopting tech at a speed that many job candidates can't match. A group of lecturers at Hotelschool The Hague argues that hospitality schools are falling behind: if students don't learn to prototype with VR and AI, they'll graduate with skills that are already outdated.

Their proposal: embed virtual prototyping and AI simulation into the core curriculum, not as an elective but as a standard practice. Students would build and test digital guest experiences in Makerspace environments, much like an engineer tests a prototype before launch. That way, they land in the industry with hands-on knowledge of the tools hotels actually use, not just theory.

I agree with the diagnosis, but I'd go further. The gap isn't only in schools. Many hotel operators still treat tech as a support function, not a core skill. If we want digitally work-ready graduates, hotels should also be willing to hire for those skills and train staff continuously. The schools can lead, but they shouldn't carry the whole burden. As the article on Hospitality Net notes, this is about preparing students for a job market where digital literacy is non-negotiable. For me, that's the right call. The future of hospitality depends on it.