How Hospitality Leadership Must Evolve: Women, Culture and Inclusion
- James Hacon
- May 19
- 4 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Last week, Think Hospitality Consulting participated in the Female Empowerment Workshop hosted by the Nova SBE Westmont Institute of Tourism & Hospitality in Lisbon, bringing together hospitality leaders, tourism executives, academics and policymakers to discuss the future of leadership, inclusion and organisational culture across hospitality and tourism.
The event focused on one of the most important challenges currently facing the global hospitality industry: how hospitality leadership must evolve to create healthier, more inclusive and more sustainable organisations.
Opening the session, James Hacon, Founder & Managing Partner of Think Hospitality Consulting, addressed the structural and operational realities that continue to shape leadership progression within hospitality, hotels, food and beverage and tourism businesses.
“Too often these conversations are framed purely as women’s issues, when in reality they are leadership issues and industry issues,” said Hacon. “Many of the systems negatively impacting women are also contributing to broader hospitality challenges around burnout, retention, unhealthy work/life expectations and outdated definitions of leadership itself.”
Why Hospitality Leadership Faces Unique Challenges
The discussion explored how hospitality and tourism differ from many other industries due to the operational nature of the sector itself.
Hacon highlighted several structural realities that continue to influence leadership pathways within hospitality:
fragmented and unsociable schedules
late-night operations
pressure for physical visibility
networking tied to after-work socialising and alcohol culture
high travel expectations
cultures that often reward constant availability and presenteeism
“For years, hospitality has romanticised exhaustion and constant availability as signs of commitment and leadership,” Hacon explained. “We need to challenge whether those definitions still make sense for the future of our industry.”
The keynote examined how many leadership structures across hospitality were historically built around older and often patriarchal leadership models, where progression was closely linked to uninterrupted career timelines, physical presence and inflexible expectations around availability.
Women in Hospitality Leadership: Structural Barriers Still Exist
A major theme throughout the workshop was the continued underrepresentation of women within senior operational and executive hospitality leadership positions.
The session explored how women in hospitality still often face:
assumptions around maternity and childcare
concerns around flexibility and long-term commitment
slower progression into operational leadership pathways
unequal access to sponsorship and visibility opportunities
leadership behaviours being interpreted differently than men
“There are still conversations and assumptions women face that men simply do not,” Hacon commented. “Questions around family planning, future flexibility and career commitment continue to shape progression in subtle and sometimes direct ways.”
The discussion also highlighted how women remain heavily represented in functions such as HR, marketing and reservations, while many hospitality CEOs and senior executives still emerge predominantly from operational leadership tracks.
Why Allyship in Hospitality Leadership Matters
One of the strongest themes of the event was the importance of ensuring men remain actively involved in conversations around inclusion, leadership and organisational change.
“If these conversations only happen amongst women, we risk creating awareness without creating organisational change,” Hacon said. “Men need to be in the room, engaged in the conversation and willing to challenge outdated systems and behaviours. Allyship is not about shouting support from the sidelines. It is about how you behave inside organisations when decisions are being made.”
The workshop also explored the reality that many leaders fear approaching conversations around equity and inclusion incorrectly.
“There is often a fear of saying the wrong thing,” Hacon explained. “But silence does not move industries forward. Progress requires honest, respectful and sometimes uncomfortable conversations.”
Leadership in Hospitality Is Changing
The panel discussion, “Women Shaping the Future of Hospitality”, featured contributions from Laura de Vega González of Meliá Hotels International, Aimee Touton of White Rabbit Projects and Laura Vana of Think Hospitality Consulting.
The panel explored leadership journeys, barriers within hospitality and the evolution of leadership culture across hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses.
Aimee Touton reflected on her experience navigating male-dominated industries throughout her life and career, from football and the army through to hospitality leadership.
“One thing that stood out from the panel was that leadership is evolving,” she shared. “Becoming more emotionally intelligent, more human and more adaptable, with women helping shape the conversation and businesses creating more inclusive ways of working.”
She also shared reflections for future hospitality leaders:
Trust your own path
Say yes before you feel ready
Be your own biggest cheerleader
Be clear about what you want
Laura de Vega González discussed the importance of creating spaces for open and meaningful conversations across hospitality organisations.
“The conversation was inspiring and full of valuable insights, reflecting not only on the challenges women continue to face within hospitality, but also the opportunities to continue transforming the sector and paving the way for future generations,” she said.
Hospitality Research and the Future of Inclusion
The event also highlighted the growing importance of academic research in understanding leadership inequality within hospitality and tourism.
Researchers from Nova School of Business and Economics, including Ana Milhazes, Jenny Hoobler and Anna Czaplewska-Jaffery, shared ongoing research examining the interconnected structural dynamics influencing women’s progression into senior tourism and hospitality leadership roles.
Ana Milhazes described the discussion as “timely and necessary”, highlighting the importance of understanding how organisational systems reproduce inequality over time, rather than simply listing barriers in isolation.
The workshop concluded with discussions around future collaboration, including support for the institute’s developing global mentoring programme and continued partnerships between academia and industry leaders.
The Future of Hospitality Leadership
For Think Hospitality Consulting, the event reinforced an important reality facing hospitality, tourism and food and beverage businesses globally.
The hospitality industry does not need to lose its ambition, pace or intensity. But it does need to evolve beyond outdated leadership models that increasingly fail both women and the next generation of hospitality talent.
“The goal should not be preserving old systems and simply helping women survive within them,” Hacon concluded. “The goal should be building better systems altogether. Systems that value capability, empathy, resilience, adaptability and impact over outdated notions of presenteeism and endurance.”
“The future of hospitality leadership should not belong to the people most willing to sacrifice themselves to outdated systems. It should belong to the best leaders.”
Comments