Marília Durão is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Hospitality Management Degree at Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique (UPT), Portugal. She holds a PhD in Tourism (2021) and a Master's degree in Tourism Planning and Management from the University of Aveiro (2009), as well as a Bachelor's degree in Tourism from Instituto Superior de Administração e Gestão (ISAG, 2007). In 2015, she was awarded a Doctoral scholarship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Her PhD thesis focused on career management, employee retention, and quality of work life in the tourism and hospitality industry, laying the foundation for her ongoing research on workforce dynamics and employment sustainability in the sector. She is an integrated member of the ‘Territory and Development Research Group’ of REMIT – Research on Economics, Management and Information Technologies (UPT), and a member of the Research Group ‘Tourism and Development’ of GOVCOPP – Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (University of Aveiro). Over the past years, she has been actively involved in EU-funded capacity-building and strategic partnership projects, collaborating with higher education institutions and stakeholders across Europe and Asia. These projects have focused on strengthening educational systems, fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, and enhancing the alignment between higher education and labour market needs. Within these international consortia, she has contributed to the development of training programmes, educational resources, and interdisciplinary methodologies, as well as to stakeholder engagement and knowledge transfer activities. Her research has addressed key challenges related to human resource management, employment, education and training, entrepreneurship, and gender equality in the tourism and hospitality industry. More recently, she has been expanding her work towards issues of workforce diversity and inclusion, particularly in relation to migrant workers and multicultural work environments. Her work adopts maily qualitative and participatory approaches, contributing to the development of more inclusive, stakeholder-driven research and practice. Her broader research interests also include tourism destination development and management, sustainable tourism, and visitor management and interpretation. In parallel, Marília has been actively engaged in pedagogical innovation, promoting project-based and interdisciplinary learning approaches in collaboration with industry partners and destination management organisations. Through these initiatives, she has contributed to bridging education, research, and practice, enhancing students’ skills and employability while supporting knowledge transfer to the sector.