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COVER STORY: HOSPITALITY FOR ALL
from HM JUNE 2025
HOSPITALITY FOR ALL
Dr Madalyn Scerri and Dr Anita Manfreda from Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School (BMIHMS) at Torrens University Australia reveal how a partnership with Hotel Etico is driving inclusion in the hospitality industry.
Hospitality begins and ends with people. Not just the ones checking in, but the ones checking them in, serving meals, making beds, and creating moments of care. Yet, for all its emphasis on welcome, the industry has long excluded many from the opportunity to work, lead, and thrive within it.
But the truth is clear: when inclusion is embedded in operations, it doesn’t just change lives, it elevates the guest experience. A diverse team delivers richer service, deeper empathy, and more authentic hospitality. That’s not an optional extra. That’s the business.
Still, walk into many hotels or restaurants and the disconnect is immediate. While guests bring diverse stories and needs, the staff often reflect a narrower reality. Despite years of policy, structural barriers continue to hold back change.
At the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School (BMIHMS) at Torrens University Australia, research into workforce equity reveals persistent gaps.
Women dominate frontline roles but remain underrepresented in leadership. Migrant workers, essential to operations, face wage inequity and limited career progression. And people with disability are largely invisible in employment data.
“Over one in five Australians live with disability,” says Saraya O’Connell, General Manager of Hotel Etico. “Yet employment participation lags far behind – 48% of working-age people with disability are in jobs, compared to 80% of those without.”
Our goal is to make Australia’s tourism and hospitality sector the most inclusive in the world.
Andrea Comastri, CEO, Hotel Etico
One hotel in the upper Blue Mountains is showing what a different future could look like.
Hotel Etico, Australia’s first not-for-profit social enterprise hotel, trains, employs, and supports young adults with disability through a work and training program. Based in Mount Victoria, it offers award-wage employment, hands-on hospitality experience, and helps trainees transition into open employment.
Since 2022, Hotel Etico and BMIHMS have worked in close partnership – bringing together lived experience, operational insight, and academic research – to explore what drives the model’s success and how its lessons could inform broader change. Their findings reveal a purpose-led approach, where training is personalised, leadership values-driven, and inclusion integrated into every layer of operations.
“We are extremely proud of the impact we are creating not just at an individual level with our young adults with disability, but more importantly at an industry level,” says Andrea Comastri, CEO of Hotel Etico.
“Our goal is to make Australia’s tourism and hospitality sector the most inclusive in the world.”
For Dr Madalyn Scerri and Dr Anita Manfreda, lead researchers on the project, this partnership reflects the impact educational institutions are uniquely positioned to drive. Dr Scerri explains, “Collaborative research provides evidence and insights needed to understand workforce shifts, challenge assumptions, and drive meaningful change.
Our role as educators and researchers isn’t just to analyse from the sidelines. It’s to work with industry to co-create more equitable, inclusive, and future-fit systems.”
The results are tangible. Program graduates are employed across New South Wales in cafés, hotels, and restaurants. Employers are rethinking hiring and training practices to unlock talent they once overlooked.
“Working with Hotel Etico has challenged us to think differently about how we attract, support, and grow talent,” says Bethany Flynn, Director of Talent and Culture at Fairmont Resort. “It’s reinforced how powerful inclusion is in building a stronger, more capable team. Beyond the workplace, initiatives like this have the power to positively shift the social fabric, with a flow-on effect to guests who experience firsthand the value of inclusive hospitality.”
“We’re encouraged by the appetite for inclusion,” Comastri adds, “and the high level of engagement of some of the most well-known hotel brands in Australia. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the industry – meeting staffing demands, upskilling their workforce, and creating lasting impact.”
BMIHMS is concurrently broadening its research focus to address systemic barriers – examining emotional labour experienced by neurodivergent employees, structural disadvantages facing migrant workers in regional areas, and the continued exclusion of women from leadership roles.
That impact is spreading. BMIHMS alumni, now in leadership and hiring roles, are changing recruitment strategies. Industry partners are re-evaluating workforce practices. And a new generation of hospitality professionals is being equipped to treat inclusion as business critical.
“Our partnership with institutions like BMIHMS and Torrens has been instrumental, demonstrating how education, research, and industry can work hand-in-hand to advance inclusive employment solutions,” Comastri adds. “And we look forward to strengthening that even further.”
Hospitality has always promised welcome. Now is the time to extend that promise to the people who power the industry. Through meaningful collaboration, Hotel Etico and BMIHMS are proving that inclusion isn’t a gesture. It’s a strategic imperative and a shared responsibility. And it’s working.
