Dear colleagues,

This year 25th Biennial International Congress Tourism & Hospitality Industry 2020 hosted by The Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija, University of Rijeka, was originally planned from May 4 - 6, 2020 in the city of Opatija.  In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the organizers’ main concern was to guarantee the health of participants and ensure a high level of attendance from the stakeholders. Unfortunately, the Organization committee was not able to have the conference in the well-known format this year. Nevertheless, in order to keep the existing tradition of the conference, the planned conference proceeding will be published in May 2020.

Since 1960, the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management has made an outstanding scientific contribution to better understanding of tourism processes and tourism development. Today Faculty represents a unique institution in Croatia and region that focuses on tourism as a significant area of scientific research. Faculty was an initiator of numerous scientific and professional conferences. Thus, back in 1972, for the first time, the traditional Hotel house gathering was organized, which was a symbiosis of science and good practice. Through its long tradition, the event has grown into an international scientific congress that has brought together nearly 3,000 researchers so far, giving them the opportunity to share their ideas and latest research findings through more than 1,000 published scientific papers in the field of tourism and hospitality.

THI2020 is a multidisciplinary congress with a long tradition bringing together policymakers, industry and academics to lay the groundwork and identify innovative solutions for the development of tourism.  The aim is to promote a collaborative environment between the academic and tourism community in search of improvement and attractiveness of tourism business.

Tourism and the hotel industry are simultaneously very delicate and flexible parts of national and worldwide economic systems. Plurality of social, economic, technological, natural, political and other changes have huge effect on their adaptation and development. Consequently, the title of our congress TRENDS AND CHALLENGES did focus on variety of aspects in tourism and hospitality industry.

Scientists and researchers were invited to exchange their newest ideas and research results. As the field of tourism and hospitality industry cross over into multiple areas and disciplines, authors were welcomed to submit from a diverse range of topics, perspectives and disciplines. Following the first call sixty-one abstract were submitted. The selection of the paper was made in accordance with a double-blind review process and was conducted by reviewers from Czech Republic, Lithuania, Serbia, Romania, Poland, Great Britain, Slovenia and Croatia. A total of thirty-two papers were accepted and more than haft was written by international authors coming mostly from different EU countries.

Topics of the submitted papers vary from the different aspect of human resources management, cultural tourism, sustainable development of tourist destination, IT innovations to marketing and media challenges in tourism. Selected papers were placed into four sections titled: Challenges of human resources management in developing year-round tourism, Development of selective forms of tourism as the basis of reducing seasonality, Challenges in sustainable development in a tourist destination and Importance of the accommodation, transport and IT in tourism development.

Even though the already planned program of the congress, due to this year specific situation, could not be realized, the wish of the organizers was not to break a long tradition that already exists. All accepted papers will be published in a THI2020 congress proceedings that will be available online in May, 2020. Best papers will be selected and considered for publication in International Scientific Journal “Tourism and Hospitality Management” published by the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Croatia.

We invite you to the next 26th Biennial International Congress Tourism & Hospitality Industry that should be held in Opatija in the year 2022. Hopefully, under better circumstances, the congress will again bring together policymakers, industry and academics to discuss the challenges facing tourism and hospitality industry in upcoming years.

Best regards,

Dora Smolčić Jurdana, Dean

Kristina Črnjar, Congress Chair