Source: School of Tourism Management
Written by: School of Tourism Management
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

The 3rd World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality & 1st USA-China Tourism Research Summit was held on December 15-19, 2015 in Orlando, Florida, USA. Prof. Jigang Bao, Prof. Qiuju Luo, Dr. Zengxian Liang and Ph.D. student Dan Zhu attended the summit on behalf of the School of Tourism Management (STM) of Sun Yat-sen University. This summit was hosted by Rosen College of Hospitality Management in University of Florida, and attracted 252 representatives from 52 countries or regions.

The 3rd summit set 6 parallel meeting places where 214 papers about different topics in tourism were displayed. With the theme of "Transforming Partnerships 2015”, the 1st USA-China Tourism Research Summit was aimed at creating a platform of collaboration for the research of tourism between USA and China.

Prof. Jigang Bao delivered a keynote speech entitled “Change in Consumption Patterns and Tourism Trends in China”, in which he introduced the new trend of the development of tourism in China by showing the statistical data and case analysis. Since the implementation of the "eight-point" anti-bureaucracy rules, the supply, investment and consumption in tourism in China tend to be reasonable. Based on the analysis of the new trend, Prof. Bao presented his views on tourism research in China in the new era.

Prof. Jigang Bao also attended a panel discussion on “USA-China tourism research: opportunities, challenges, and solutions", analyzing the chance and progress during the Sino-American collaboration on tourism and expressing expectation to collaboration between the two sides in the future.

Prof. Qiuju Luo attended a panel discussion about “Technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship as driving forces for hospitality and tourism industries”, in which she pointed out that event tourism always tries to find a sustainable development by innovation. Currently China is facing new challenges and opportunities in event tourism, industry innovation, technical progress and market transition will make new space for the research of tourism. Meanwhile, an expectation towards the cooperation between China and other international projects in relevant fields was emphasized in order to push forward the event tourism research in China.

In the break out sessions, through the case analysis of Yuntai Community in Jiaozuo, Henan province, Dr. Zengxian Liang, in his part, conducted the analysis and evaluation of the features of the daily life of residents in the community, revealed the benefits brought to the local people via the development of tourism under the background of resource and city transformation, and finally discussed about the effective approaches on enhancing their life quality.

On behalf of the two authors Prof. Honggang Xu and Batueva Chimita, the Ph.D. student Dan Zhu, made a speech titled “A journey of self-development: independent travel of Chinese overseas students in Europe” in her panel discussion, which analyzed the internal relationship between the travel experiences and the self-development of the adolescent students.

In this summit, STM formed one of the largest delegations consisting of professors as well as many outstanding graduates from all over the world. On the precious occasion, the STM and its alumni exhibited the newest research results and demonstrated excellent proficiency and high-quality engagement, which was highly praised by the scholars and experts at home and abroad.

By taking this chance, STM professors and alumni held a gathering after the summit. During the conversation, Prof. Jigang Bao extended his sincere and cordial greetings to the eminent alumni and his expectation of their constant care and support for the school, while the alumni expressed their appreciation to their alma mater and pride of being part of it.

The summit attracted scholars and experts from the major colleges of Tourism, it was no doubt a significant and precious summit in the Sino-American academic community. The sponsor Rosen College of Hospitality Management of University of Florida and the publisher Elsevier made great efforts in the organization of this successful summit.