Angers-ESTHUA: new research laboratory that hopes to seduce tourism professionals

Thinking about tanning for Chinese tourists, tourism for seniors, or hotels of the future.

Here are some of the questions that the members of the Angers TourismLab are going to explore, a new research laboratory launched by ESTHUA.

In partnership with the city of Angers, the university, the Loire Countries region as well as the European Union, this laboratory was endowed with a generous budget of 5.2 million euros for 5 years.

Enough to finance 7 projects that were selected, along with three PhD students and three post-doctorate students.

This project is a first. Because up to now, tourism had never been thought of as a research discipline in itself, contrarily to the United States and Canada.

The members will thus have to clear a virgin field, but also convince tourism professionals of the relevance of their work.

“Companies must understand that innovation goes through the development of research. We must create stronger partnerships between these two worlds,” explains Pierre Denizet, President of the Managing Board Appart’City and Ambassador of Angers TourismLab.

He recruited a PhD student in Cifre for a strategic research mission. A contract that, thanks to a tax credit, only costs around 10,000 euros.

Multiply synergies between professionals and the university is in fact the mantra of Philippe Broix, Director of Angers TourismLab.

He is established within the ESTHUA, one of the first universities to have found interest in tourism thirty years ago.

Today, it has 3,000 students and “produces zero unemployment,” rejoices its Director, Philippe Violier.

ESTHUA has always multiplied partnerships with tourism professionals by organizing workshops that meets their expectations.

The last to date: manager of camping sites. A profession that is undergoing transformation and that needs to be restructured. Another workshop is scheduled in September, on tourism and seniors.

Another project: that of creating a practice hotel for tourism students between now and 2020. A budget of 4 million euros that will finance a place to accommodate researchers and also to experiment in the hotel industry of the future.

The ambitions of Angers TourismLab were presented at the SNAV and SETO by François-Xavier de Boüard, former Co-President of Selectour Afat.

A support from the two major professional tourism organizations would be strongly welcomed to contribute to unite these two worlds that have been ignoring each other for too long.