Dr Tim Gale recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong and China, in late November and early December 2017.
While in Hong Kong he was hosted by Prof Hanqin Qiu and her team at our partner the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and treated to a demonstration of their online MicroMasters programme in International Hospitality Management. This enabled a useful discussion of comparative approaches to tourism education, focussing on the potential and challenges of developing MOOCs.
This was followed by a visit to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China where Dr Gale was invited to speak at the China Tourism Education Association Annual Conference. His talk focussed on the strategic review of the undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes in Tourism and Hospitality at BU, and the ‘future-proofing’ of the curriculum. With some 50 international and over 500 Chinese delegates, this was a fantastic forum for exchanging ideas and perspectives on tourism education from different parts of the world. Once the speeches and networking were concluded, delegates were treated to a day-long tour of the city of Guangzhou, including visits to the Five Rams statue, the Chen Clan Academy, the Cantonese Opera Museum, Shamian Island and the Canton Tower, the second tallest tower in the World.
The insights gained and contacts made will prove useful as we consolidate our international reputation for teaching and research excellence in Tourism and Hospitality, going forwards (recognised by our rank of #9 in ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2017, Hospitality and Tourism Management).