As Florida Atlantic University partners with The Hospitality Show on its Emerging Leaders Program, Peter Ricci, director of the hospitality & tourism management program at Florida Atlantic University, shares his perspective on developing the industry's future talent.
In this Q&A, Ricci discusses the value of mentorship, the balance between technology and human connection, the skills employers seek in rising professionals and why he remains optimistic about hospitality careers despite a rapidly changing business landscape.
Why was it important for Florida Atlantic University to partner with The Hospitality Show on the Emerging Leaders Program?
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is involved with the American Hotel & Lodging Association throughout the year as well as with its foundation where I personally try to give small amounts to help future leaders with scholarships. Further, I have a scholarship in my honor with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International and its South Florida chapter which supports five emerging leaders entering the sales, marketing, and commercial strategy areas of our industry (particularly those working in the hotel space).
The importance of FAU to be front and center to assist young leaders across the hospitality industry is omnipresent in what we do globally. To date, we've had likely 100,000+ executive certificate completing students in our Hospitality & Tourism myriad certificate offerings, many of these young leaders. For me personally, my favorite portion of the hospitality industry was my 10-year+ stint as a hotel general manager, regional general manager, and vice president. It solidified the variety of a career that is exciting, energetic, full of opportunity and promise, and something that is all too often overlooked by young leaders across all college majors.
The hotel business is similar to operating a small city. As such, FAU's hospitality & tourism program is housed inside one of the top colleges of business in America, accredited the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). This means that students from every area of business may pursue future careers in hotel management based upon their unique areas of "love" and "passion" within the overall business world. From marketing and hospitality management to human resources and accounting or from finance and supply chain logistics to economics and enterpreneurship. The hotel business provides a place for every discipline and for every type of human.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association is led by Rosanna Maietta who is one of the most inspiring leaders across all tourism industry segments. Further, Kevin Carey leads the American Hotel & Lodging Association's philanthropic foundation side which provides scholarships for future hoteliers, assistance to workers in their apprentice programs, and so on and so forth. Kevin has taken the foundation to the highest of heights and Rosanna, who led the foundation prior, has taken her outstanding foundation experience to help her vision and lead as the AHLA president and CEO in new and vibrant ways.
To say it is a no brainer for the country's top hospitality business-school program to be "front and center" at The Hospitality Show is an understatement.
What skills are hospitality employers looking for most in young professionals entering the workforce today?
All skills, but especially those considered the mixture of excellence in business (quantiative) along with excellence in communication (interpersonal skills, ability to speak to groups of every level of employee or stakeholder, writing ability with and without the use of artificial intelligence supplements) and responsiveness. What separates future hotel leaders from the pack is their a) attention to their stakeholders in and off property, b) their ability to communicate well with these various groups of stakeholders, c) their financial prowess to make the asset a leader for ownership, and d) the ability to work with, through, and alongside every type of human in our world.
Is it difficult to groom on all sides? Absolutely. Is it possible? Absolutely.
What qualities or habits separate future hospitality leaders from their peers?
Ability to communicate with humans without needing technology 24/7. Have honest, real conversations AND be able to use their choice of Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or similar when useful as well. It's the mixture of those skills and not reliance 100 percent on the technology surrounding them.
Again, I will say responsiveness and care. If they are the most responsive among their peers and have the true ability to care about stakeholders (listening, empathy, focus, et al.) they will separate themselves from any pack of others in their field.
What advice do you give students and young professionals who aren't yet sure where they fit within the industry?
Send me an email at peter.ricci@fau.edu for a one-on-one chat! I've had the pleasure and also the breadth to look at tourism wide and broad. I've experienced fine dining, managed services/contract dining, airline, incentive travel, destination marketing, hospitality education teacher, travel agent/travel advisor, sales/marketing/commercial strategy, and hotel operations/leadership — not to mention guest service training and consulting. I continue to see the entire industry as the BEST industry to work in globally and across all 50 U.S. states and territories. However, "finding yourself" is the hard part.
If I were to do it all over again, I would still work in hospitality and try casinos, cruise lines, motor coach tour operator, or more, but I'm SURE the hotel space would once again be my favorite. I enjoy hosting guests into what seems like your own "big home..."
What career mistakes do you most often see young professionals make early in their careers?
Several are quite common these days:
Expecting too much, too soon without having put in the necessary time to fail and grow.
Having salary expectations that may not match the exact environment they are targeting. The old saying, "money comes when you do what you love", is something I repeat over and over again.
Often, too, they will leave excellent work environments for $20,000 more. I have an MBA graduate who shall remain unnamed who recently took a new role - doing just this - and I will "let the cards play out" as the saying goes. You have to do what you want to do - but many of us have seen the pattern repeat and repeat and repeat. Stay where it is HAPPY TO WORK and remember that people work for bosses, not for companies. If your boss and culture are the BEST THING YOU'VE EXPERIENCED, why would you leave for a 5% pay increase?
You'll regret after your very first pay check and taxes, fees, and benefits have been removed from it.
One of the program's goals is connecting emerging leaders with mentors. What makes a mentorship relationship truly successful?
Consistency. It takes both sides: set up regular times, stay in touch, do not let "life" get in the way (which it often does), and have a plan of where you want the mentor-mentee relationship to go. Sometimes, it's only 1 or 2 meetings, other times it lasts for a full lifetime.
I take great pride in being a person who is transparent, who fulfills his promises every time, any time, to the best of my ability, and keeps HUMANS front and center with an occasional "touching base" or just saying "hello." With mentees and mentors, it's no different. Keep the relationship alive and well!
How can young professionals make the most of networking opportunities at industry events like The Hospitality Show?
Do not be afraid to shake hands. I personally reached out to Chris Nassetta years ago. How could a hotel CEO even care about or have time for a lowly faculty member? I simply said I was SUPER PROUD of what I heard everywhere in their culture among my students and my alumni. Having my home location in South Florida, we have an abundance of corporate-managed Hilton products of every brand and level. The feedback is consistent: They like working there, they don't wish to leave for another franchisor, and they have career pathing opportunities.
Mr. Nassetta was beyond compassionate and friendly and I have since had the utmost pleasure doing a one-on-one session with him for our certificates, having Hilton on campus, attending Formula 1 events with students where he and Paris Hilton celebrated the brand and partnership with Formula 1 and so on and so forth.
The theme is consistent among our industry top leaders such as Horst Schulze (co-founder Ritz-Carlton), Jonathan Tish/Alex Tisch (Loews Hotels), David Kong (Best Western) and Christine Duffy (Carnival Cruise Line) - just to name a few.
On the contrary, we have all had our share of people who "couldn't be bothered" because of their titles or positions and would not even have their staff take the time to reply. To me, we work in tourism and hospitality - the tone starts at the TOP and trickles downward. I feel the love among the leaders who have taken the time to invest in emerging leaders across every portion of our industry. I do not believe that even as the top in a company you should be "away" from your constituents at the lowest of levels.
This week we had the unfortunate passing of the legendary Dolly Parton. I follow Dolly's lead to make the world better in any way possible — albeit with a lot less financial ability. There is not ONE foundation that doesn't say thank you even for supporting it for a $25 donation to make the world better in our own small ways.
How should hospitality education evolve to keep pace with AI, automation and changing guest expectations?
The evolution and change is an almost-daily challenge. At FAU, we have the fabulous Center for Online and Continuing Education whose excellent leader, Dr. Julie Golden-Botti and team were bright enough to start Friday "PlAIground days" for faculty members to learn, experiment with, and showcase new A.I.-related technology and beyond. In education, in hotels, and in the greater world around all we do - it's a matter of knowing WHEN to use A.I. to help the end goal, WHERE to use A.I. to make guest satisfaction, performance of the hotel, profitability better, and/or HOW to use the particular Artificial Intelligence platform that is best for the scenario.
It's not different than earlier times in our industry when we felt that guests would never purchase travel online (early days of ecommerce), when revenue optimization would only focus on room revenues (now commercial strategy across every platform), and go way back to when a hotel "brand" wasn't even invented (Hilton is credited with this) or to Mr. Marriott believing that if we "take care of our employees, they will take care of our guests." Our industry is always changing...and will always change along with every other industry in the world.
Stay current, stay open minded and do not use technology just for bells and whistles — use it when it's proper to improve whatever activity you are doing...
When today's emerging leaders become GMs and executives, how do you think they'll lead differently than previous generations?
More compassionate and open minded...more open to different "work days" of what work means to me or what it means to you...more inclusive...more able to use technology than any other generation before them...and hopefully more educated and nimble. I see profit expectations going up over the next 10 years as they have over the past 10 years and I see full-time equivalent positions going down over the next 10 years as they have decreased in similar decades one over the other. They need to be creative, versatile in their learning, open to new ideas, and able to listen to all generations, not only those above them, but from 15 year olds to 80 year olds and everyone in between.
What gives you the most optimism about the future of hospitality talent, and why are programs like this important to the industry's long-term success?
Our program has as many students in seats - even more - than we had prior to the horrid pandemic. We saw decrease tourism performance and degree interest likely in ever type of "crisis" we've had historically from the 1970s gas crisis to SARS/Zika to 9/11 and to Covid. In the end...every generation wants to travel more than their parents, we meet people from all over the world every day and form relationships that we want to take to the human/in-person level, and this will not change. People love to travel and where they travel and how they travel will change, but the desire or wanderlust as it is called is here to stay among humans. Our next frontier is likely space and the moon.
This industry is amazing! Yes, does it have highs and lows and have economic impacts and impacts from war and changing travel habits and so on...yes, but there is always a place to work on this planet in hospitality and it is indeed the world's number one industry. I can say that now since I have proudly worked in it from the age of 14 years old...