Dr. Florian Zach

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Hospitality and Tourism Management

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540-231-8425  •  florian@vt.edu

Florian Zach is an Associate Professor in the Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, U.S.A., where he teaches the Capstone Strategic Management course to all business students. Prior to joining the Pamplin faculty, he successfully led the extension of the Washington State University Hospitality Business Management program to the Vancouver, WA satellite campus. Previously he was the Assistant Director of the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce at Temple University.

His research focuses on strategic management with applications to hospitality and tourism, innovation adoption, market entry and positioning strategies. His articles appeared in leading business and tourism & hospitality journals such as Production and Operations Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. Alongside numerous academic conference presentations, he has been an invited visiting professor at Lianneus University, Sweden (2021-2022), a visiting research fellow at the University of Surrey (2026) and the Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria (2026) and delivered several invited speeches.

His research has been recognized with awards and grants such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration SeaHAB grant, Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research Best Paper Award, several conference best paper awards, and two Dean’s Fellows awards.

He received his Masters in International Economics from the Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria and his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University.