To deepen academic exchanges in the field of tourism management across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and to promote research innovation and disciplinary development among young scholars, City University of Macau (CityU) recently hosted the 4th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Tourism Management Postgraduate Forum at its Taipa Campus. The forum, themed “Emerging Formats and Innovative Models of Cultural and Tourism Integration”, was jointly organized by CityU’s Faculty of International Tourism and Management (FITM), the Department of Tourism Management of the South China University of Technology and its Institute for Tourism Development Planning, with funding support from the Macao Foundation. The event attracted the participation of faculty and students from over 30 institutions, including renowned universities from Mainland China, Macao, Hong Kong, and South Korea, who came together to explore cutting-edge issues in tourism management. The broad participation and strong academic influence of the forum were clearly reflected throughout the event.
At the opening ceremony, Vice Rector Ip Kuai Peng stated that CityU and the Faculty of International Tourism and Management would leverage the development opportunities arising from Macao’s positioning as a world center for tourism and leisure, and remain committed to cultivating more high-caliber tourism professionals. He wished the forum a resounding success and expressed his hope that it would serve as a platform for young postgraduate students to exchange ideas, pool collective wisdom, and contribute to the high-quality development of the tourism industry.
Subsequently, Prof. Li Xi, executive associate dean of the Faculty of International Tourism and Management (FITM), provided a comprehensive overview of the FITM’s fifteen-year legacy in cultural and tourism education, highlighting its distinctive educational features and achievements in disciplinary development. He also introduced the theme, thematic framework, and industry value of the forum.
The forum invited editors-in-chief and associate editors of internationally renowned academic journals to deliver keynote sharing sessions, including Prof. Catheryn Khoo, editor-in-chief of Tourism Management Perspectives; Prof. Marianna Sigala, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management; Prof. Daisy Fan, associate editor of Tourism Review; and Prof. Henry Cheah Chee Wei, associate editor of the British Food Journal. They offered in-depth insights into fields such as tourism management, hospitality and tourism education, and sustainable development in cultural tourism, bringing international perspectives and cutting-edge academic inspiration to the participating faculty and students. In addition, the four distinguished guests also took part in a roundtable forum, engaging in interactive dialogue with the audience on hot topics including academic publication, research topic selection, and international collaboration.
The forum received over 80 paper submissions. Following a rigorous review and selection process by experts, 48 outstanding papers were ultimately accepted and presented across six parallel sessions. The papers focused on cutting-edge topics such as large language models and tourism privacy, AI applications in tourism, digitalization in cultural tourism, heritage tourism, rural tourism, sustainable hotel development, cross-border tourism, and the revitalization of intangible cultural heritage. These presentations fully demonstrated the solid research foundations, keen problem-awareness, and active innovative thinking of young scholars in the field of tourism management.
The successful hosting of this forum not only established a high-level, international academic exchange platform for tourism management, effectively promoting cross-regional and cross-institutional sharing of academic resources and collaborative talent development, but also broadened the research horizons of young scholars and enhanced their academic communication skills and innovative awareness. The forum also promoted high-quality development of cultural tourism in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area through academic support, while providing valuable experience for the advancement of tourism management as a subject and the development of postgraduate education.
Source: Faculty of International Tourism and Management
