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

The First Australia-China Tourism Forum was successfully held at Hilton Adelaide, Australia on December 15-17, 2016. The forum, co-organized by School of Management, University of South Australia, School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University and Tourism Research Cluster, Curtin University, aimed to bring together international researchers, government officials, industry practitioners and graduate students to share their insightful views and perspectives on the emerging tourism issues.

The theme of the forum is "Strengthening Australia-China People and Cultural Links through Tourism: Looking beyond Economic Ties". 11 representatives from School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University attended this event, including Professor Luo Qiuju, Professor Sun Jiuxia, Associate Professor Zuo Bing, Associate Professor Chen Ganghua, Dr. Fleur Fallon, Postdoctoral Fellow Yuan Hongzhou, Ph.D Candidates Wang Junchuan and Zhong Dixi, Master Graduate Chen Wanxin (who is now doing Ph.D program in UTS, Australia), and Master Candidates Xu Yongxia and Ling Ling. A total of 92 participants from China, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries and regions attended the forum.
 

Group photo of attendees from School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University and Professor Songshan Huang (fourth from left) from University of South Australia
 

At the opening ceremony of the forum, Professor Luo Qiuju delivered an opening speech on behalf of the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University. She warmly welcomed the attendees from all walks of life and stressed the important role of this forum in strengthening the cultural ties between China and Australia. She said that Sun Yat-sen University and University of South Australia have established a long-term relationship with each other and this time, it was the biggest cooperation in scale by both schools and achieved a great success. Both of the schools looked forward to a greater breakthrough in the future cooperation.

The forum program consisted of four keynote presentations, a panel dialogue and eight concurrent sessions. Various topics had been heatedly discussed during the forum, such as Chinese tourists’ perception of destinations, host-guest interaction in tourism and hotel management, rural tourism and eco-tourism, event management and urban development, social media and tourism, tourist behaviors, special tourism and other mainstream tourism research topics. This forum is a great platform to further develop and strengthen Australia-China relations, promote the transnational cooperation between academia and industry as well as realize win-win cooperative relationship.