Humanities scholars have rarely enjoyed the strongest job prospects, but a cohort of academics have found an unusual career path.
Luxury hotels are bringing on experts with degrees in history, philosophy and the antiquities to educate guests and shape their product offerings.
Anthology of Athens, an 18-suite boutique hotel and member of The Leading Hotels of the World that opened last year, recently launched Anthology Dialogues, a program offering private or small-group sessions with historians and philosophers.
The inaugural series features Despina Iosif, a professor of ancient history and religion, whose credentials include a current teaching post with the study abroad program College Year in Athens and previous affiliations with the University College London and University of Crete.
Despina Iosif
"Most luxury hotels out there focus only on pampering, but far fewer seek to engage the mind and awaken curiosity," said Iosif. "And today's guests have high expectations. They're not just looking for a traditional tour, they're seeking meaningful engagement, intellectual depth and authentic connection."
Iosif said her sessions, which run 45 minutes and cost 180 euros (about $209) for up to four guests, can be customized and can take place virtually anywhere, be it the hotel's library, a nearby archaeological site, a museum or even over a meal or a walk. Topics vary from ancient Greek philosophy and Stoicism to health and healing in antiquity.
"Every dialog is unique and different, just as every guest is different," she said.
Konstantinos Sigalas
Konstantinos Sigalas, commercial director at the Anthology of Athens, said a large share of the hotel's target clientele have business, technology or finance backgrounds but tend to be passionate about history, archaeology and the humanities.
"When they decide to relax, they're looking to slow down and learn something, spend their time on something deeper," said Sigalas, adding that travel advisors have responded enthusiastically to the program at trade shows.
For some hotel brands, academic expertise is incorporated into product development.
Kempinski Hotels CEO Barbara Muckermann said the company has an internal heritage office with a resident historian. When the brand signed a hotel in Prague, the historian spent two months there learning about the property and the city to find out how its history could be reflected in the product.
At Accor's luxury Orient Express brand, historian Arthur Mettetal serves as director for culture, art and heritage.
Mettetal holds a doctorate degree in history and heritage and became involved with the brand when France's national rail company, SNCF, prepared to relaunch Orient Express in 2015. His studies focused on the heritage and economic, technical and engineering history of the company that created the original Orient Express service in 1883. (Accor acquired a 50% stake in the brand from SNCF in 2017 and took full ownership of Orient in 2022.)
Historian Arthur Mettetal said Orient Express has considerable cultural and historical cachet to draw on. Photo Credit: Accor
Mettetal said that Orient Express, which under Accor is expanding beyond rail roots into hotels and sailing yachts, has considerable cultural and historical cachet to draw on. At its peak in 1928, the company operated more than 2,000 train cars, best known for its iconic Paris-to-Istanbul service.
"Orient Express is a universal cultural object, because of the many different cinema and literary references and because of its destination; at the end of the 19th century, Istanbul was the fantasy for all of Paris," he said.
As part of his work, Mettetal was charged with tracking down surviving Orient Express carriages scattered across Europe. He found them in railway museums, heritage associations and even on the grounds of private estates.
By 2018, he had identified more than 150 cars, with one of his most significant finds being carriages abandoned along the Poland-Belarus border, which he located using Google Maps and archival imagery. The cars are being restored and redeveloped for a future Orient Express train.
Mettetal also serves as an on-call resource for the brand's design and restoration teams. "There's the industrial aspect, but there are also many craftsmen that participate to transform these objects into a piece of art," he said.
Expert tour guides
Hotels are also partnering with tour operators to offer guests academic expertise.
Context Travel, a day-tour operator founded in the early 2000s, built its business around the concept of academic-focused tourism.
The company offers small-group and private tours, typically capped at six or seven people, across roughly 90 cities. About 80% of Context's approximately 1,300 to 1,400 guides hold a master's or doctorate degree, spanning disciplines from art history and archaeology to food studies, said Context CEO June Chin-Ramsey. Private half-day tours cost up to roughly $600, while small-group tours start around $100 per person.
"It's like having a knowledgeable friend in any city," Chin-Ramsey said, "someone that can answer any question, go off-script and bring the travel experience alive for anyone from an 8-year-old to an 80-year-old nonna."
Context partners with hotels and is in the process of launching a co-branded product with a European hotel partner. Travel advisors are also a significant part of Context's business, accounting for more than half of its bookings.
"The luxury of today is human attention and presence," said Chin-Ramsey. "People are just so used to scrolling, but having that connection and being really in the moment, with both an expert and the people that you came with, is so rare, and I think it's going to be a growing asset."