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

The Second International Conference on Tourism Sciences was successfully held in Guangzhou Baiyun International Conference Center on September 16-19, 2016. The conference was hosted by the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-sen University and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Tourism Development. Co-organizers are namely the Center for Tourism Planning and Research (Sun Yat-sen University), the Center for Tourism, Leisure and Social Development (Sun Yat-sen University) and the Monitoring Center for UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatories.

More than 170 scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries/regions shared their new ideas, advanced methods and current trends in tourism research. They contributed to global and Chinese tourism research and tourism development. Trends, opportunities, challenges and other issues surrounding tourism raised in-depth discussions. It is hoped that through the establishment of such a communication platform as well as academic exchanges and cooperation, tourism research in China can be further promoted.
 

Prof. Jigang Bao, Dean of the Graduate School and Dean of the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony
 

Prof. Jigang Bao, Dean of the Graduate School and Dean of the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, emphasized in his opening remarks that although there still exist many challenges facing tourism research in China, with the increase of in-depth research in recent years, tourism scholars in China have started to pay more attention to research norms, research problem and theoretical development.

Ten professors were invited to give keynote speeches. They are namely Prof. Dogan Gursoy from Washington State University (US), Prof. Jigang Bao from Sun Yat-sen University, Prof. Haiyan Song from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Prof. Shangyi Zhou from Beijing Normal University, Prof. Gang Li from University of Surrey (UK), Prof. Bihu Wu from Peking University, Associate Professor Songshan Huang from the University of South Australia (Australia), Prof. Peilin Liu from Hengyang Normal University, Prof. Yanjun Xie from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics and Prof. Ning Wang from Sun Yat-sen University.
 

A scene of the 2nd International Conference on Tourism Science
 

In addition, the conference set up 11 themed parallel sections: ‘tourism, ethnic groups, poverty alleviation and community development’, 'tourism planning, environment and resource’, 'tourist behavior, experience and destination marketing’, 'new theories, views and methods in tourism research’, 'philosophical issues in tourism research’, 'tourists' decision-making and behavioral intention’, 'tourists behaviors, market and marketing’, 'tourism market and regional tourism development’, 'tourism, identity, mobility and politics ’, 'tourism enterprise management and human resources’, and as well two special parallel sections for presentations in English.

This conference has been a comprehensive display of the current progress in China’s tourism research. The academic exchanges and the sharing of research outputs are believed to produce positive and far-reaching influences on tourism research of China.