Dear friends,
It is a great privilege to announce the commencement of my own on-line, hospitality management school. My long and personal efforts, experience, competencies, and achievements are merged to offer an interpersonal approach in teaching and learning hospitality related majors. A unique approach for all students dreaming to excel and thrive professionally in an ever changing and developing industry. As an educator, researcher, writer, executive director in some phases of my career in the hotel industry, I presented a significant and diverse offer in the tourist events of Cyprus. I come from a hotelier’s family within which hospitality is a tradition, giving my own battle and offer to the Cypriot and international tourism in general. Therefore, in my extensive academic career hundreds of hotel students passed through my classes in the last 35 years.
I hold a PhD in International Business, a Master’s degree in Hospitality Management and Business Administration respectively, and a Bachelor’s in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Thus, I graduated from first class universities: International School of Management in Paris, France, Sheffield Hallam University, Pacific States University, Denver University. Major characteristics and motivators for my educational advancement were my personal high academic performance and my passion in achieving continuous improvement. I have a long and a valuable experience in the hotel industry of Cyprus, as a hotel owner and manager. During my leadership in hotels, I was committed to the principles of service quality, and innovation, adopting a customer centric operational philosophy. New service and product development and guest’s satisfaction was a major component in maintaining the competitiveness of the company.
Moreover, I have a very significant involvement in the Hotel and Catering Industry, with long years of studies in this field, engagement in all areas of the profession, particularly as a Hotel Instructor for 25 years, Assistant and Principal at Paralimni Technical School and reaching the high position of the Supervisor of the Hotel and Catering Studies of the Vocational Education of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports & Youth in Cyprus. Currently, I am working at InterNapa College as Associate Professor and at Larnaca College as a Quality Assurance Director. This has earned me the right to express my well-founded opinions on all aspects of the industry.
My restless spirit of the educator and professional has led me on to new paths and quests aimed at upgrading the tourism product. I have acquired knowledge of up to date technology and technical know-how and my suggestion to my colleagues is that knowledge of these matters will make them better able to apply new teaching methods with emphasis on co-operative learning and the creation of a suitable climate for teaching and learning. Consequently, my quest is for the ideal and the sustainable. I have attempted to discover what must be done by all teachers, professionals and workers in the Hotel and Catering Industry to meet tourists’ expectations and make them want to return to Cyprus and to promote the product. I discovered that there is insufficient research into understanding the expectations and perceptions of customers-tourists and that there is a gap between what is offered and what is expected. Also, I found out that tourists’ expectations are met not only by a good pricing policy but also by the quality of the services offered. Measurement of success stems from the entrepreneurs’ ability to satisfy their customers and persuade them to come back and/or convey that satisfaction to others so that they too will want to sample this quality of services.
Based on the above I went in search of a new tool to measure the quality of the services offered with a view to assisting Cypriot entrepreneurs to upgrade their services. This is the first time that studies of this kind with measurable data regarding the quality of the services offered by the island’s hotels have been conducted in Cyprus. My studies have proved a useful tool for students, professionals and workers in the sector of tourism. The fact that so many professionals and others have sought my studies led me to the decision to publish them and establish well the online school, so that they would be available to more people who are involved in the tourism sector and who may also perhaps use them as a basis for further research. Ending, I do really believe and support that knowledge and experience should be shared and this is the honest reason for establishing the first and complete online school in hospitality education.