ABSTRACT
The provision of food, drink, and accommodation away from home is a major sector of the UK service industry. Both the contribution the jobs market and to Gross Domestic Product are significant, but somewhat under-reported in UK government statistics. The luxury hotel and restaurant sector represent a small part of the global whole and are not separately accounted for in official publications; hence employment and revenue data must be estimated. It is certain that the luxury sector represents a fraction of employment and sales in the hotel and restaurant sectors. Despite this, most hospitality management education is focused on the skills sets needed of luxury hospitality provision. Hospitality management education is biased towards this small sector of the market and thereby limits student exposure to the wider employment opportunities for graduates. Programmes concerned with preparing graduates to be job ready concentrate too much on management skills and techniques that are ultimately about the management of operations and pay minimal attention to the needs of students as citizens. The tyranny of relevance guides curriculum design, and there is limited space for content that encourages the development of critical thinking skills that empower them as people.
