October 2025

Volume 26, Issue 4

Newsletter of School of Hotel & Tourism Management
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ACHIEVEMENTS AND RECOGNITION

The award ceremony for the SHTM's "Tomorrow's Guestrooms in the Hotel Industry" Competition for Secondary School Students was held on 10 October 2025. The awardees were as follows:

Champion – St. Paul's Secondary School
1st Runner Up – Li Po Chun United World College
2nd Runner Up – Renaissance College Hong Kong

At the ceremony, the SHTM expressed sincere appreciation to all participants for demonstrating their creative talents. The level of engagement and enthusiasm was truly inspiring, with more than 80 secondary school students registered. Each entry made a unique contribution to the excitement of the competition.

Ph.D. graduate Dr Huicai Gao received the Merit Award at the PolyU Ph.D. Thesis Award 2025 for her thesis "Forecasting Tourism Demand Using Big Data".

The PATA Hong Kong SHTM Student Chapter won the Trailblazer Award 2025 at the PATA Student Chapter Awards in Bangkok, Thailand. This award recognises their outstanding efforts to promoting the Pacific Asia Travel Association's (PATA) core values of responsible travel and tourism development.

The SHTM has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dr Elton Sun, Vice President of Hyatt China & CEO of UrCove Hotels, representing Yusu Hotel Management. This collaboration aims to explore the applications of the social listening platform TOUROMETER within the tourism industry, enhancing the understanding of customer sentiments and addressing evolving industry needs.

D.HTM student Ms Miki Zhang received The Padma and Hari Harilela Scholarship 2024/25, established in 2011 by Dr Hari N. Harilela, head of the Harilela Group. The Harilela Group plays a significant role in supporting professional development within the hotel industry.

D.HTM student Ms Michelle Yang received the Prof Bob McKercher Scholarship, which supports students pursuing the D.HTM programme at the SHTM in Hong Kong.

SHTM staff members have successfully obtained National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grants and Public Policy Research (PPR) grants in 2025.

NSFC grants:

Prof Ying Wang received the NSFC General Programme Fund for her project titled "How do Diaspora Trips to the Homeland Foster Cultural Identity? The Role and Influence Mechanisms of Cultural Connectedness".
Prof Daisy Fan received the NSFC Young Scientists Fund for her project titled "Research on the Influencing Mechanism of Tourist-Resident Social Contact on Destination Prosocial Behaviour in the Context of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Integration: A Reciprocal Perspective".
Dr Ming Deng received the NSFC Young Scientists Fund for her project titled "AI-Driven Digital Nudging in Promoting Tourists' Pro-Environmental Behaviour: An IS Delegation Theory Perspective".

PPR grant:

Prof Hailey Shin, with a co-investigator, received the PPR grant for their project titled "Developing and Validating a Scale for Environmental, Social, and Governance-driven Smart Tourism Destinations (ESG-STDs): Extending the Stakeholder Theory and Social Exchange Theory".

Prof Haiyan Song has been elected a Fellow of the Chinese Economic Association (CEA) UK/Europe. This honour recognises his significant contributions to the association and Chinese economic research. Prof Song served as the association's 8th President (1996–1997) and is a founding editor of CEA's journal, Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies.

SHTM faculty members were recognised for their excellent performance.

Prof Richard Qiu received the SHTM Teaching Excellence Award (Early Career Teacher).

Prof Neil Li was awarded the SHTM Research Excellence Award (Early Career Researcher).

Prof Honggen Xiao received the SHTM Research Student Supervision Award.

A team led by Prof Dan Wang, including Dean Kaye Chon, Prof Qu Xiao, and Dr Ming Deng, received the SHTM Knowledge Transfer Excellence Award (Industry) for their project titled "The Development & Impact of Hotel Environmental Sustainability Management Index (HESMI)".