Source: School of Tourism Management
Written by: School of Tourism Management
Proofread by: Zhang Xiaoming
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On December 3-5, 2015, the Conference on Academic Innovation and the Construction of Tourism towards a First-level Discipline, hosted by Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), organized by the School of Tourism Management of SYSU, and co-organized by the Collaborative Innovation Platform for the Development of Modern Tourism Industry and the Center for Tourism, Leisure and Social Development Research, was successfully held at Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center.

More than 240 guests from over 90 universities, research institutes, corporations related to tourism, as well as media friends attended the conference. The participants had in-depth communication about the new trend of academic innovation in tourism, how to construct tourism towards a first-level discipline, and the orientation of talent training in tourism.

The plenary meeting

At the plenary meeting of the conference, Prof. Jigang Bao, Dean of the School of Tourism Management at SYSU, delivered a keynote speech with the theme of “A critical thinking about the development of tourism discipline in a new era”. Prof. Bao pointed out that the discipline not only serves for the knowledge production, but also for the real demands from the society. However, the current status of tourism management science has not yet adapted to both demands, therefore there is an urgent need for disciplinary upgrading. He proposed to constantly enrich and increase the number of secondary disciplines and strengthen the discipline system.

The other speakers extended the topic in terms of the necessity of first-level discipline construction, tourism community evaluation, and the upgrading and development of tourism industry.
 

A branch meeting

The conference also included 5 branch meetings in different aspects: “tourism discipline and program construction”, "academic innovation in tourism”, "hotel and catering”, "philosophy and fundamental theories of tourism”, and “collaboration between universities and corporations in tourism talent training”.

This conference was successfully held with lots of results and common views achieved. No doubt it is a distinguished gathering in the field of tourism which will create profound significance to the development of tourism discipline.