Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-04-07
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Georges El Hajal, Senior Lecturer & Researcher, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences
In the face of the multiplication of global crises, hospitality can no longer be thought of solely as a commercial service, but becomes an essential survival practice, based on ethics and human dignity. Hence the need to develop the notion of “humanitarian hospitality,” practiced by field actors, which requires specific skills (resilience, ethical sense, adaptability) and to establish a new educational model integrating a “dual focus”: caring for populations while protecting the mental health and resilience of caregivers.
We are living in a time of major geopolitical upheavals. Withmore than 120 active armed conflicts affecting 60 countries, more than 300 million peoplenow depend on humanitarian assistance.
However, educational models in hospitality — understood here as the set of pedagogical approaches, competency frameworks, and training systems that structure hospitality education — remain largely anchored in stable and commercial contexts, mainly oriented towards preparing for careers in tourism, hotel management, and catering, where the activity takes place in relatively predictable environments governed by service logic, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Faced with ongoing upheavals, it becomes imperative to revise our frameworks of understanding: in crisis zones, hospitality is no longer a leisure activity, but a survival mechanism, a profound ethical act, and a form of essential human solidarity. This shift in meaning is not solely due to a change in context. It reveals a structural limitation in the way we conceive and teach hospitality. This reflection is mainly directed at professionals in hospitality and tourism education, while also offering an analytical framework that can illuminate the practices of humanitarian actors and, more broadly, anyone called upon to welcome others in crisis contexts.
The emergence of humanitarian hospitality
This paradigm shift defines what El Hajal, Westerlaken, and Losekoot (2026) call“humanitarian hospitality”(humanitarian hospitality). Unlike the commercial sector, which is based on a transactional exchange (comfort in return for remuneration), this form of reception is rooted in ethical care and the preservation of human dignity. It is provided by rescuers and volunteers, such as those of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, operating in environments marked by danger and scarcity.
Hosting in extreme situations is a complex challenge, and rethinking hospitality through this lens requires going beyond the mere logistics of distributing food or tents. This implies, for those directly involved in crisis reception — notably humanitarian workers, volunteers, and more broadly, anyone called upon to assume a “host” role in these environments — the development of specific skills: the ability to manage stress and uncertainty, make ethical decisions under pressure, intercultural sensitivity, and the aptitude to maintain a relational presence in unstable environments.
It is about responding to the material and emotional needs of displaced populations, while protecting the psychological health and resilience of those providing this support under considerable pressure. Traditional commercial hospitality is fundamentally based on a transactional and reciprocal exchange: shelter, food, and services in return for remuneration, with the goal of client comfort and satisfaction. In war- or disaster-stricken areas, this logic collapses. Hospitality there becomes non-reciprocal and is anchored no longer in comfort, but in survival, ethical care, and the preservation of human dignity.
The philosopherJacques Derridaalready emphasized the tension between the ideal of an “unconditional” welcome and the reality of a “conditional” hospitality, dictated by laws and resources. On the ground, humanitarian workers deploy an “ethics ofcare» (solicitude) to navigate between their desire to offer an absolute refuge and the constraints of security or lack of resources, and to prioritize relational responsibility, empathy, and responsiveness.
Former the “ethical host”: from Lebanon to the Netherlands
This approach is not just theoretical; it is already transforming pedagogy. The project“Hospitality in Uniform”, supported by the faculty inInternational Hospitality EducationAt NHL Stenden University (Netherlands), these dimensions are integrated through simulations where students face dilemmas combining logistics and ethics. These setups rely on partnerships with organizations such as the Red Cross, defense institutions, and national resilience programs, in order to bring academic training closer to operational realities.
The case of Lebanon particularly clearly illustrates these dynamics in a context of prolonged crisis. In an environment marked by recurring tensions and conflict situations, the actions of the Lebanese Red Cross volunteers go far beyond merely providing emergency medical care. They include, for example, reuniting separated families, assisting displaced persons, as well as providing psychosocial support to populations exposed to situations of violence and uncertainty.
In this context, volunteers do not act as “hosts” in the material or infrastructural sense of the term, as they do not necessarily have dedicated reception facilities. Their role is rather situated in a form of relational hospitality, based on presence, listening, and the recognition of the dignity of those they accompany. In this sense, they embody the figure of the “ethical host”: not by offering a physical lodging space, but by creating, through their interactions, symbolic and emotional conditions of welcome that are essential in unstable environments.
Thus, hospitality is no longer limited to material infrastructure, but becomes a relational infrastructure, based on trust, continuity of the bond, and the ability to maintain a human presence in contexts where social benchmarks are weakened.
In these contexts of rupture, hospitality in uniform thus proves to be a vital relational infrastructure, a demanding emotional presence that transforms the logistics worker into a host bearing hope. Contexts that traditional educational approaches currently struggle to integrate in a structured manner.
The “double focus”: protecting those who welcome
One of the major contributions of this framework is the notion of “double focus”(dual focus). While humanitarian aid has long been evaluated based on accounting criteria, the ethics of care reminds us that the quality of care intrinsically depends on the resilience of the one who provides it.
The psychological toll for these “guests” under pressure is indeed heavy: professional burnout, compassion fatigue, and ethical dilemmas between institutional neutrality and personal empathy. It is therefore impossible to guarantee the dignity of displaced populations without simultaneously prioritizing the mental health of workers.
In order to situate this reflection within the field of hospitality and tourism studies, it is useful to propose an analytical comparison between forms of reception in a commercial context and those observed in crisis situations. This comparison does not aim to equate these contexts, but rather to show how the theoretical frameworks of hospitality, historically developed in tourist environments, can be mobilized and reconsidered to analyze extreme situations where reception becomes an ethical act rather than a service. In the tourism industry, the host operates within a controlled environment, governed by service standards and organizational protocols aimed at customer satisfaction.
In times of crisis, these landmarks collapse: reception no longer involves a structured and reciprocal exchange, but an asymmetrical relationship marked by urgency, vulnerability, and an increased ethical responsibility. This comparison thus highlights a fundamental shift, where hospitality moves from a service logic to a relational practice centered on dignity, care, and presence.
Towards a new educational grammar
In contexts of crisis and forced displacement, hospitality cannot be reduced to a commercial service logic and is more accurately seen as a stabilizing social practice, centered on dignity and the maintenance of human connection. From this perspective, the responsibility of hospitality and tourism training institutions is no longer limited to service excellence but calls for an evolution around three pillars:
Relational resilienceA: to understand that the quality of care for the Other depends on one’s own emotional strength.
Ethical reflexivityÀ : knowing how to navigate between the urgency to assist and institutional constraints.
Operational adaptabilityÂ: combining logistical precision and care centered on the human.
Rethinking hospitality through the prism of humanitarian hospitality is therefore not just a conceptual evolution. It involves a transformation of the expected skills, professional responsibilities, and the societal role of hospitality. This calls for a reconfiguration of training, but also for closer cooperation between the educational, humanitarian, and institutional sectors, in order to act with discernment in a world where everything is unstable.
For a detailed theoretical and empirical development of this concept, as well as its exploratory validation with humanitarian workers, seeEl Hajal, Westerlaken and Losekoot (2026).
Georges El Hajal is a member of CIPD – Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Luc Béal does not work for, advise, own shares in, or receive funds from an organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no affiliation other than his research organization.
–ref. Beyond tourism: when hospitality becomes an act of survival –https://theconversation.com/beyond-tourism-when-hospitality-becomes-an-act-of-survival-279532