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Some authors have alerted on the state of crisis generated by Covid-19 in the tourism industry worldwide. The restrictive measures disposed by governments generated not only an unparalleled economic crisis but also serious social maladies in society and education (i.e., higher dropout rates and low academic grades). Needless to say that the tourism education was in crisis much time earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic. Echoing Sigala and Ratten, the authors hold the pungent thesis that Covid-19 introduced a new opportunity to reform the epistemology and the basis of the tourism education curricula. Centerd on the role played by pleasure and joy, which is boosted by the digital technologies, this chapter synthesizes the findings of PANCOE, a successful experiment conducted by the University of Palermo, Argentina, to reduce the dropout rates while improving students’ academic performance. The experiment was drawn and applied in the years before and after the pandemic. Results show how pleasure plays a vital role giving students better opportunities in contexts of fear and deprivation.

Classic education is mainly marked by what experts dubbed as “Cartesian dualism,” which punctuates the rational planning (mind) should subordinate emotions (body). In tourism education, Cartesian dualism occupies a central position populating in the academic curricula. Of course, over the recent years, some voices have alerted on the problems of tourism education in training the new tourism staff. Pregraduate students are often subject to excessive working hours, low-paid salaries without mentioning the lack of answers to respond to the global risks the industry often faces. This suggests that classic tourism education should be at least revisited. PANCOE is a successful experiment with basis on Joy Labs (University of Palermo, Argentina) that combines pleasurable techniques and practices to stimulate students’ academic performance while reducing drop-out rates. PANCOE alternates with digital technologies, smelling and tasting dishes, to enhance creativity and entrepreneurship. Originally designed to be applied to foreign students coming from neighboring countries who live alone in Buenos Aires, PANCOE shows promising results to be conducted over psychologically deprived students. Lastly, PANCOE centers efforts in consolidating local food heritage while cooking local dishes or baking pieces of bread or cookies where students come from.

The time is right for a theory on strategic entrepreneurial ecosystems and business model innovation. Both topics have increased substantially during the past couple of years due to their strategic nature. This means they are uniquely placed to provide practical advice but also theoretical development. This chapter discusses the theory in terms of how it bridges strategic planning, innovation management, and entrepreneurship literature. Thereby propelling the field of entrepreneurial ecosystems further by suggesting it has both a strategic and business model perspective. This chapter argues the reasons for a new theory to be developed in order to maintain the relevance and practicality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature.

Institutions, including higher education institutions (HEIs), may use crises as an opportunity to develop, to transform and to improve their institutional resilience. Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic proves that a vast majority of HEIs around the world effectively adapted to the circumstances of the pandemic and successfully embarked on remote learning. The analysis of HEIs proves as well that the nearly overnight switch to remote learning was but one aspect of the quiet transformation that HEIs worldwide were subdued to. In this context, this chapter identifies the administrative practices, including talent management, operations management, and above all, the organizational culture. The notion of changed expectations on the part of the faculty and the students is highlighted. The key point that this chapter makes is that the faculty and the art of education, rather than simply teaching, need to be placed first if HEIs are to retain their resilience.