Dubrovnik Welcomes Hospitality Professionals to EuroCHRIE in October

‌

Submitted

The European Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference, EuroCHRIE, is being hosted in Dubrovnik, Croatia, at RIT’s American College of Management and Technology.

A major European hospitality conference will have several Rochester connections this fall.

For the first time, the European Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference, EuroCHRIE, is being hosted in Dubrovnik, Croatia, at the American College of Management and Technology, one of Rochester Institute of Technology’s international campuses.

Virginia Clark, vice president of community affairs for Constellation Brands, the largest distributor of wine and spirits in the world with corporate headquarters in Rochester, will be a keynote speaker for the event.

Travel, tourism, and hospitality educators and professionals from across Europe, the Middle and Far East, and the U.S. will participate in the 29th annual EuroCHRIE, Oct.19–22.

“This is one of our industry’s major events and to have it a ACMT is an achievement and an honor,” says Francis Domoy, RIT chair emeritus of hospitality and tourism management. “The college and the community have worked together to build relevant and interesting programming for the educators and professionals who will participate. But, they have also put together a program that will provide guests with opportunities to see the beauty of Croatia and how welcoming it is to travelers.”

This year’s EuroCHRIE Conference theme is “Tourism and Hospitality: Drivers of Transition.” Workshops and seminars will focus on how the tourism and hospitality industry has helped to revitalize Eastern Europe.

“We wanted to explore the interrelation between hospitality and tourism, hospitality and tourism education, and the process of change in transitional countries,” says Jennifer Matic, co-chair of the conference scientific committee, and faculty member at ACMT.

“As EuroCHRIE is an organization of hospitality educators, a particular focus is on how hospitality education drives change through the education it provides for the next generation of hospitality employees and leaders. There is also a focus on trying to preserve and leverage unique cultural traditions in transitional countries.”

The opening ceremony and keynote addresses will be held at the Excelsior Hotel, just outside of Dubrovnik’s Old Town area. Workshops and research-paper discussions will be presented at the hotel and the American College of Management and Technology. A gala dinner will take place at Revelin, once a fortress to protect the city of Dubrovnik, now a prominent administrative center. All sites overlook historical sites of Croatia and the Adriatic Sea.

Other featured speakers include Pave Zupan Ruskovic, president of the Working Group for Destination Management of the City of Dubrovnik, and Ivica Vrancic, a local consultant and expert on human capital development. Faculty participants from RIT and ACMT, co-sponsors of the conference, are: Besim Agusaj, Nikolina Bozinovic, Rebecca Charry, Barbara Cerio-Iocco, Mara Dekovic-Kesovija, Zrinka Friganovic-Sain, Edward Ganster, Elizabeth Kmiecinski, Milena Kuznin, Rick Lagiewski, Jennifer Matic and Barbara Peric.

Last year, the American College of Management and Technology in Croatia won the opportunity to present the annual European Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference in Dubrovnik. Domoy and Don Hudspeth, president and dean of the ACMT, made a presentation to the council’s board of directors at its annual meeting, winning the bid to sponsor the annual professional event for educators in the tourism and hospitality industry around the world. Founded more than 50 years ago, the organization has more than 1,500 members in over 50 countries.