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Peter Varga

Dr Peter Varga

Dr Peter Varga

Assistant Professor

Expertise

  • Anthropology and tourism
  • Cultural intelligence
  • Sociocultural sustainability
  • Sustainable hospitality culture
  • Tourism development

Biography

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.

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)

Education

PhD in Social Sciences, Specialisation in Anthropology of Tourism, University of Guadalajara

Courses Taught

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
• Corporate Sustainability
• Gestion de la responsabilité sociétale de l’entreprise
• Sustainability transitions and Innovation in business
MASTER IN HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
• Foundations of Sustainability

Teaching Location

EHL Campus Lausanne

Journal publications

Varga, P., & Muñoz-Barriga, A. (2025). The Broken Golden Egg of the Galapagos: Mistrust and short sightedness in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. International Marketing Journal of Culture and Tourism, 7, 81-89. Retrieved from https://imjct.com/archives/issue-7/issue-7-7/

Laaksonen, S. and Varga, P. (2024). 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, 19(3), 331-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2023.2292147

Varga, P., Rouger, M. A., Terrier, L., Zizka, L., & Zivkovic, P. (2022). Welcome to My Home: Muslim Residents' Perceptions of Western Tourists. Tourism: an international interdisciplinary journal, 70(4), 571-584. https://doi.org/10.37741/t.70.4.3

Zizka, L., & Varga, P. (2021). Teaching sustainability in higher education institutions: Assessing hospitality students’ sustainability literacy. Journal of hospitality & tourism education, 33(4), 242-257. 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, 25(10), 1128-1135. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2020.1773513

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. https://doi.org/10.22259/2642-908X.0102002

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. https://doi.org/10.7603/s40930-015-0005-7