On 23 September 2025, Hotel Management School Leeuwarden (NHL Stenden) and Hotelschool The Hague proudly welcomed over 40 participants to the very first meeting of the Revenue Management & Pricing Society.
The community brings together academics, educators, and industry professionals to explore the future of revenue management and pricing. The insights and best practices are already finding their way into our teaching, giving students an even more engaging and practical learning experience.
Throughout the afternoon, inspiring speakers shared their perspectives:
- AI’s role in Revenue Management – Dr Thomas Fiig and Dr Michael Defoin Platel of Amadeus gave the keynote speech, which looked at how AI is changing the field. They talked on the path from traditional analytic models to cutting-edge machine learning, stressing that hybrid systems now offer better demand forecasting and segmentation by combining human insights with AI-powered automation. Emphasized was as well how AI should improve (not replace) the decisions made by experts. In the future, talent management will focus on how AI and human professionals can work together to make things more efficient and sustainable.
- Logistics and transportation insights – Sigrid Geldermans-Smits from Intra Europe gave a behind-the-scenes look at how logistics companies manage their revenue, using FedEx as an example. Logistics is different from traditional hotels and airlines models since it needs dynamic pricing and capacity management, frequently with last-minute bookings and optimization across worldwide networks. The growing importance of sustainability and digital expansion in logistics revenue strategies were here the key takeaways.
- Revenue Management Education – Patty de Gruiter from Breda University of Applied Sciences and Marit de Vries from Hotel Management School Leeuwarden at NHL Stenden talked about the problems and successes of present schooling. They see that although while graduates are typically hired as managers, they are only trained at a junior level. This leads to a gap that only can be closed when a cooperation is established between education and industry and in which the research groups of the Hotel Management School’s having to play a role.
- Building the Society’s Future – The gap to be closed as identified in the last presentation, is one the reasons for the need for this national society which was the reflection shared by Prof. Ian Yeoman LPSNZ (Journal of Revenue Management & Pricing) and Marit de Vries. Both industrial and academic attendees heartily agreed. The overall need to cover by this society is to bring together academics, educators, and industry professionals to create a national community for advancing knowledge and work together on the future of revenue management and pricing. The society’s next steps are to set up an interim committee, establish the foundational articles, and schedule the next event for January 20th, 2026. The ongoing message: sustaining this initiative requires care, passion, and continuous engagement—just like the dedication Revenue Managers bring to their roles.
A special thanks to Hotelschool The Hague for co-hosting, to all speakers for their valuable contributions, and to our dedicated audience for their energy and commitment.
Interested in joining or supporting the Society? Please reach out to Marit de Vries (marit.de.vries@nhlstenden.com).