Professor Cathy Hsu spoke on ‘Tour Guide Performance and Tourist Satisfaction' at the 6th Asia-Pacific (APacCHRIE) Conference and THE-ICE International Panel of Experts Forum 2008 held in Perth, Australia, on 21-24 May. Dr Vincent Heung, Dr Alan Wong, Dr Ada Lo, Dr Catherine Cheung, Dr Basak Denizci and Ms Loretta Pang also gave presentations. The paper written by Mr Paul Penfold and Ms Loretta Pang titled ‘Blending and Shaking: Chinese Students' Perceptions of Blended Learning in a Hospitality and Tourism Course' won the Best Refereed Paper Award at the Conference.
Professor Cathy Hsu and Dr Honggen Xiao attended the 39th Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA)-International Conference held in Philadelphia, USA on 15-17 June 2008. Professor Hsu presented a paper titled ‘Customer-to-Customer Interaction: Impact on Cruise Experience and Overall Vacation Satisfaction' and Dr Xiao spoke on ‘One Community or Two Solitudes? Another Perspective on Research Communication in an Applied Tourism Research Community'. Mr Louen Tang and Ms Athena Mak, both SHTM students, received the conference's Best Undergraduate Research Paper Award and Best Master's Thesis Award. Mr Tang's supervisor is Dr Thomas Bauer and Ms Mak's supervisor is Dr Kevin Wong.
Professor Jackie Chan received the “Best Foreign Star Promoting Seoul Tourism Award” at the Seoul Tourism Awards 2008 held in Korea on 26-28 June. Professor Amy Chan was invited to speak at the Urban Tourism Forum held at the same time, and her topic was ‘Strategic Alliances amongst Cities in the Asia Pacific Region'.
The SHTM organised a one-day workshop on business etiquette aiming to enrich work-related knowledge and enhance communication amongst the School's administrative staff members. The workshop was held at the Hong Kong Gold Coast Hotel on 27 June 2008.
Professor Amy Chan was invited to speak at the First Convention Leaders' Forum in Daejeon, Korea on 1-2 July 2008. Her presentation topic was ‘Achieving Global Competitiveness for an International MICE Destination'.
Professor Kaye Chon and Professor Cathy Hsu attended the 8th Biennial Conference on Tourism in Asia co-organised by the SHTM and the University of Angers held in Angers, France, on 2-4 July 2008. As the Conference Co-chairman and main speaker, Professor Chon delivered the opening remarks and spoke at the Opening Panel Session. Professor Hsu presented two papers, one entitled ‘Developing a Tour Guide Role Performance Scale: Focus Group Results of Mainland Chinese Tourists in Hong Kong' and the other entitled ‘Motivation and Destination Selection of Domestic Chinese Senior Travellers'.
Professor Kaye Chon and Dr David Jones were invited to speak at the China Hotel Leadership Forum cum Work-Integrated Education Partnership Exchange held in Shenzhen, China, on 27 July 2008. The forum was organised by Flagship (HK) Hotels Professional Training and co-organised by the SHTM. Professor Chon spoke on ‘Entrepreneurship and Industry Partnership in Hospitality and Tourism Education' and the topic of Dr Jones' speech was ‘Marketing to Generation Y – The Millennials'.
Professor Kaye Chon and a number of SHTM faculty members attended the 14th Asia Pacific Tourism Association (APTA) Annual Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 9-12 July 2008. Professor Chon delivered his opening remarks and moderated the NTO/CTO session with panel speakers from Incheon Tourism Organisation, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asia-Pacific Cities. Co-authored by Professor Haiyan Song, Professor Stephen Witt and Dr Alina Zhang, the paper entitled ‘An Integrative Approach to Tourism Demand Forecasting with a Web-Based Forecasting System' won the Best Paper Award (Dr Hai Sik Sohn Award) at the conference.
Ms Chloe Lau was invited to deliver a keynote presentation on the topic ‘Convention and Exhibition Centre Development in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan' at the Forum on Development of MICE Tourism and Education Trend in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The forum was organized by the Leaders University in Taiwan on 10 July 2008.
