Postgraduate studies in Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure in Brazil: from the consolidation of master's degrees to the emergence of PhDs

Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure are close areas with interrelationships still little investigated on postgraduate studies in Brazil which can configure an area of study, the TH&L. Therefore, this qualitative research was developed through a bibliographic and documentary study with the aim of investigating the conditions and evolution of postgraduate programs in this area, alongside the origin of their PHDs under the influence of hospitality studies. The Brazilian model is made explicit, and within this context the first master's degree in Tourism emerged in 1993. This text describes the evolution of the postgraduate programs in TH&L with its consolidation in the 2010s. The initial PhD projects usually refer to Hospitality and cite authors and works in the field from the course bibliographies, with a great representation of the Anglo-Saxon and French currents. The most cited authors were Conrad Lashley, Isabel Baptista, Alison Morrison, Luiz Octavio Camargo, and Marielys Bueno. Some institutions shared more referential authors, noting two main sharing centers. In most PhD projects, it was found that hospitality led to some interest and knowledge without being its guiding thread, however.