The University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Business Administration held the Forum on Tourism and Hospitality Education in the Greater Bay Area. Leading educators in the field attended the forum to share their experience in developing academic programmes in tourism and hospitality in the Greater Bay Area.

In his opening speech, UM Rector Yonghua Song said that UM, being a major local higher institution, had initiated multiple projects and activities related to the Greater Bay Area in the past several months. They included research projects, research collaborations, faculty visits to higher education institutions, training for graduating students, student exchange activities, as well as this forum, which had brought together not only educators, undergraduate students, master’s students, and PhD students, but also industry executives from the integrated resorts in Macao. He expressed hope that the forum will achieve fruitful results and will lay the foundation for tourism development in the Greater Bay Area. Forum speakers included Prof Kaye Chon, dean and chair professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Mr Chen Wenjie from the Think Tank Alliance of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council; Prof Liu Jingyan, associate dean of the Business School at Sun Yat-Sen University; Prof So Siu-Ian, associate professor in the International Integrated Resort Management Programme at UM; and Dr Fong Hoc Nang, assistant professor in the International Integrated Resort Management Programme at UM. Participants had an in-depth discussion on topics related to the development of academic programmes in tourism and hospitality in the Greater Bay Area. Other participants included scholars, industry practitioners, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Greater Bay Area.

The Greater Bay Area Tourism Graduate Student Forum was held on the same day and attracted postgraduate students from various universities in the Greater Bay Area. Forum speakers included Prof Li Jun, head of the Department of Exhibition Economy and Management, School of Tourism Management, South China Normal University; Dr Li Zhou, head of the hotel management programme at Shenzhen Tourism College, Jinan University; and Dr Ja Young Choe and Dr Yeongbae Choe, assistant professors in the International Integrated Resort Management Programme from UM. They shared experience in tourism education and offered advice on career planning with postgraduate students from the Greater Bay Area.