The 2021 JHTM Online Paper Hackathon was a great success. More than 60 delegates across multiple continents, organised into 16 Hackathon teams, worked online with their mentors to form and present their research ideas. The event kicked off on 19 October 2021 and the teams presented at a pitch event on 2 November 2021.

Hackathon teams were mentored by the JHTM editorial board and editorial committee members to prepare and deliver presentations on significant and contemporary issues in hospitality and tourism. The editorial team was impressed by the effort, quality, and creativity of each team, and it was indeed a challenging task to select the top-three.

Winning proposals

The editorial team is pleased to announce the following three top quality proposals. Congratulations! The authors will have the opportunity to further develop their proposals into research manuscripts to be submitted to JHTM through an expedited review process.

Human Resource Management focusing on gender issues

• Christos Kakarougkas, University of the Aegean
• Alok Kumar, Jain Bangalore
• Mark Chris M. Lapuz, National University Philippines

COVID-19: unprecedented negative impact on the tourism industry

• Brigitte Stangl, University of Surrey
• Marco Ciraulo, University of Surrey

Community capitals and sustainable rural livelihoods through a pandemic – case studies of host communities around waterfall destinations in Southwestern Nigeria 

• Kevin Wallace, University of Technology Sydney
• Oyinkansola C. Kevin-Israel, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta

Acknowledgments

The JHTM editorial team would like to acknowledge the contribution of volunteers led by Dr Samaneh Soleimani, who dedicated tremendous time in managing the event.

In addition, we also thank our editorial board members who served as mentors:

• Yaochin Wang, A/Prof. Michael Volgger, Dr. Aaron Tham, A/Prof. S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Dr. Elizabeth Agyeiwaah, A/Prof. Emily Ma, A/Prof. Giacomo Del Chiappa, Dr. Xi Yu (CeCe) Leung, Dr. Xander Lub, Dr. Zahed Ghaderi, Prof. Girish Prayag, Prof. Marianna Sigala, and Dr. Edmund Goh.

Our mentors immensely helped to increase the rigour and quality of the proposals.

Last but not least, thank you to all participating teams, who contributed to the success of this event. We look forward to your participation in future JHTM events, and your contributions to JHTM, as authors, reviewers, and readers!

Recordings

The recordings for the events are available on YouTube at 2021 JHTM Research Symposium & Paper Hackathon.