2013 China Tourism Science Annual Conference held in Beijing

Sohu Travel Channel special report link: http://travel.sohu.com/s2013/2013-ctas/

With the strong support of all sectors of society, the 2013 China Tourism Science Annual Conference was held grandly at the Tangla Hotel in Beijing from April 20 to 21, 2013. Du Jiang, member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration, and Wu Wenxue, member of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Planning and Finance Department, attended the annual conference. The theme of this annual conference is "Professional Ability and Social Service". It is hosted by the China Tourism Academy, co-organized by Ctrip.com and HNA Travel, and broadcast live on Sohu Travel Channel.

Deputy Director Du Jiang delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the annual meeting. He pointed out that at present, the development of the tourism industry has a more urgent need for tourism research and a wider range. In addition to the theoretical research and construction of the discipline itself, it is necessary for the academic community to reconstruct the contemporary tourism development theory, systematically answer a series of questions about tourism development, and then use theoretical innovation to promote the transformation and development of industrial practices. Du Jiang said that tourism research with Chinese characteristics needs to breathe and work together with industrial practice, but it cannot be based on the industry alone and let the industry lead the way. It is hoped that the academic community will strengthen the investment in scientific research funds and the construction of academic infrastructure such as databases and laboratories while paying attention to industrial development, and actively create a relaxed and democratic scientific research environment to support academic freedom and exploration. The National Tourism Administration will continue to strengthen its support for the professional capacity building and social service opportunities of the academic community through scientific research project establishment and scientific research awards.

Nearly 200 people attended the meeting, including officials from relevant departments and directly affiliated units of the National Tourism Administration, representatives of the co-organizers of the annual meeting, representatives of media organizations, and experts and scholars from the tourism community across the country. Mr. Zhang Ling, Executive Director of HNA Group, Chairman and CEO of HNA Tourism, and Mr. Ding Xiaoliang, Vice President of Ctrip.com, delivered speeches at the annual meeting. Zhou Jiucai, Deputy Director of the Policy and Regulations Department of the National Tourism Administration, released the list of scientific research projects of the National Tourism Administration in 2013 and the list of outstanding academic achievements in 2012 on behalf of the National Tourism Administration and presented awards. On the morning of April 20, the participating tourism experts and industry representatives held heated and in-depth group discussions on "Social Service Orientation of Tourism Research", "Social Demand and Service Supply of Regional Tourism Development" and "International Tourism Development and Scientific Research".

In the keynote speech session, Professor Zhang Guangrui, a researcher at the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, spoke on the political issues of tourism development; Professor Xu Hong, Vice Dean of the School of Tourism and Service Engineering of Nankai University, spoke on how tourism enterprises and tourist destinations understand and respond to changes in social conditions and service demands; Professor Qin Yu, Director of the Department of Hotel Management of Beijing International Studies University, spoke on the construction of localized theory of tourism management research; and Associate Professor Mao Runze of the School of Tourism of Shanghai Normal University spoke on the standards, applicability, main difficulties faced, policy status and innovation models of small and micro enterprises.

Finally, President Dai Bin of the China Tourism Research Institute presented the Outstanding Paper Award to the award-winning guests of the 2013 China Tourism Science Annual Conference and made a summary speech. He emphasized that as a tourism scholar, one must first have good language expression ability, creativity, learning ability, and especially the ability to learn wisdom in order to continuously improve oneself. He pointed out that serving the society means serving 2.96 billion ordinary tourists and serving those who serve the tourism rights of 1.3 billion people. The annual conference raised the issue of social services because without social services there would be no future for China's tourism academic research, and it would not be able to carry thousands of tourism scholars. Only by planting roots in the soil of the people and the soil of social services can tourism research have a solid future. On the morning of the 21st, the conference held a "Special Seminar on Tourism Destination Marketing and Industrial Innovation". Wu Wenxue, member of the Party Group and Director of the Planning and Finance Department, gave a speech on the rational thinking of destination marketing and the take-off of the tourism industry. President Dai Bin gave a keynote speech on the theme of "Tourism development requires more diverse and higher-level business innovation." The guests and industry representatives held a roundtable discussion on "Win-win cooperation - destination marketing helps the tourism industry take off", "Finance promotes tourism innovation", and "Marine tourism and cruise economy", and answered questions from the media and young scholars.