Peter Varga , PhD
Qualification(s)
Function
Teaching Location(s)
Teaching Subject(s)
Gestion de la responsabilité sociétale de l’entreprise
Corporate Sustainability
Area(s) of Expertise
Cultural intelligence
Sociocultural sustainability
Sustainable hospitality culture
Tourism development
Short Bio
Peter Varga, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the EHL. His research interests center on sustainable sociocultural dynamics of current tourism practices in host societies; cultural intelligence in intercultural service encounters; and symbolism in food and eating habits from a cultural perspective.
He earned a Doctor in Social Sciences, Specialisation in Anthropology of Tourism, from the University of Guadalajara and Master of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in Economy and Society, from the Central European University and University of Lancaster. He lives in the Geneva area with his wife and his two children.
Publications in Peer-Reviewed Journals
Laaksonen, S. and Varga, P. (forthcoming). Assessing the impact of selfie-taking tourists on local tour guides in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: A netnographic analysis of a dark tourism location. Journal of Heritage Tourism.
Zizka, L., & Varga, P. (2021). Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions Assessing Hospitality Student’s Sustainability Literacy. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.2020.1726771
Martin-Rios, C., Zizka, L., Varga, P. & Pasamar, S. (2020). KITRO: technology solutions to reduce food waste in Asia-Pacific hospitality and restaurants, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, DOI: 10.1080/10941665.2020.1773513
Zizka, L. & Varga, P. (2020). EDUCATION 2030: Aligning sustainable development goals (SDGS) to and for a higher education. Paper presented at the 12th International (online) Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Online.
Terrier, L., Varga, P. Scaroni, A., & Zizka, L. (2020). To go or not to go, that is the question: Using social influence to reduce hot beverage cup waste, Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 23 (4), 350-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2020.1768041
Leroy, P., & Varga, P. (2019). The symbolic understanding of milk in Swiss gastronomy. Research in Hospitality Management, 9(1), 25-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/22243534.2019.1653608
Worwag, S., Varga, P., & Zizka, L. (2019). Tourists’ Ethical Concern for Dumbo: Elephant Tourism in Thailand. Journal of Travel, Tourism and Recreation, 1(2), 17-27.
Haslebacher, C., Varga, P. & Murphy, H.C. (2019). Insights from images posted on social media: Examining the motivations of volunteer tourists. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 18(2), 259-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2019.1558490
Varga, P., & Binder, A. (2015). Sociocultural Hurdles of Sustainable Hospitality Management. Asia-Pacific Journal of Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism, 4(1), 77-92. DOI: 10.7603/s40930-015-0005-7
Varga, P. and Losa, A. S. (2013). Cultural stereotypes as work tools in the luxury setting? Investigating interactional practices in intercultural hotel front-desk encounters. Proceedings of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC).
Varga, P., & Losa, A. S. (2011). Enseigner la sociologie à l’EHL (HES-EHL). Au-delà de l’Université. La sociologie face à la diversité de ses publics. Bulletin de la Société suisse de Sociologie, (140), 11-13.
Funded Research Projects
Awards
Outstanding Paper Award Runner-Up for "A modified value chain analysis of tourism development in the Inlay Lake region, Myanmar", Conference Proceedings of BEST EN Think Tank XV (2015)