“Hospo drinking cultures” aims to address cultures of high risk drinking among male hospitality students and hospitality staff. While alcohol may not always be a problem for all hospitality workers, studies have shown that male hospitality workers tend to promote and engage in high risk drinking behaviours’ more commonly than women and sometimes report needing to drink to fit in.

However, attitudes and behaviours toward alcohol are starting to change. As part of VicHealth’s Men’s Risky Drinking Initiative, this project seeks to amplify these changes through a series of short animated documentaries launched in 2022. The animated documentaries feature personal experiences of how men are navigating and changing hospitality drinking cultures to facilitate low risk drinking, alternative ways of winding down after a shift, and care between hospitality workers.

The animated documentaries were informed by extensive research with hospitality students and staff in Victoria, which was conducted by researchers from Monash University and Turning Point in partnership with Chisholm TAFE. Animator, Isobel Knowles, and her creative team developed the animated documentaries with the input and real voices of people interviewed as part of the research.

A summary report of insights from the project can be found below.

• Project Summary Report 2022 (PDF)
• Project Summary Report 2022 (Word.doc)

We would like to thank everyone involved in the project, including: