Hospitality Management and Social Experience
Summary
Hospitality management encompasses the strategic coordination of people, processes and physical environments to create meaningful social experiences for guests. At its core lies the host–guest relationship, a dynamic interplay in which service providers anticipate and respond to needs, shaping perceptions of comfort, safety and welcome. Research in this field spans traditional leisure contexts such as hotels and restaurants as well as non-traditional settings including hospitals and cultural institutions. Key concerns include the design of service environments, the role of staff behaviours and communicative styles, the integration of digital technologies to personalise experiences and the embedding of sustainability principles. Globalisation has heightened interest in cross-cultural dimensions of hospitality, while recent challenges—such as public health crises and shifting consumer values—have spurred innovations in contactless service, health-oriented hospitality and inclusive design. Practical applications range from revenue management and loyalty schemes in tourism to patient-centred service models in healthcare, illustrating how hospitality management contributes to wellbeing, community engagement and organisational resilience.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
Hospitality Management and Social Experience publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in hospitality management and social experience across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Host–guest relationship: The reciprocal social interaction between service provider and customer, characterised by expectations of care, respect and mutual recognition.
Supportive care framework: A multidisciplinary approach in healthcare that addresses patients’ physical, emotional and social needs alongside medical treatment.
Mise en place: The practice of organising and arranging service elements in advance to ensure timely and seamless delivery of hospitality experiences.
Patient-centred care: A healthcare philosophy that prioritises individual patient preferences, values and involvement in decisions about their care journey.
References
- Exploring the hospitality-tourism nexus: Directions and questions for past and future research. Tourist Studies (2021).
- Performance of hospitality within restricting meal frames: An observational study of four hospital wards in Sweden. Hospitality & Society (2021).
- The Lausanne Hospitality Model: a model integrating hospitality into supportive care. Supportive Care in Cancer (2023).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.