Greater Bay Area

IFTM welcomes top scholar from Sun Yat-sen University to discuss Greater Bay Area tourism recovery

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

IFTM held on 2 June a public lecture on “Post COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Strategies for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”. The Institute invited as speaker Prof. Bao Jigang from Sun Yat-sen University, in neighbouring Guangdong Province.

Prof. Bao is the Founding Dean of that institution’s School of Tourism Management. He also heads the university’s Center for Tourism Planning and Research.

During the lecture, Prof. Bao discussed a number of concepts linked to tourism development. He also talked about trends in behaviour patterns of Mainland tourists.

The lecture took place at IFTM’s Mong-Há Campus. It was also broadcast live online. A total of 80 participants took part in the event, either on-site or online.

During the talk, Prof. Bao reviewed challenges faced by the tourism sector in the Greater Bay Area prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. He then analysed the impact wrought on China’s tourism development as a result of the pandemic.

Looking at Macao and neighbouring Zhuhai on the mainland, Prof. Bao suggested a number of “bottlenecks” had affected joint tourism development, and that it was necessary to address them. Each city should have its own positioning in marketing terms, but the 2 should build a symbiotic relationship, making the most of their respective competitive advantages, he said.

The scholar also advised the tourism industry carefully to reassess its vulnerabilities. According to him, the existing business models for tourism had shown various levels of resilience during the pandemic. Prof. Bao discussed whether a useful approach post-COVID-19 crisis could be to adopt flexible strategies for tourism development, with modest levels of investment, but high efficiency and rapid results.

In addition, Prof. Bao highlighted that tourism should be used as a tool to improve the livelihoods of host populations. He mentioned projects involving rural tourism development, where locals had benefitted from improvements in income and sanitation, while having their cultural heritage valued and preserved.

IFTM regularly hosts public lectures and seminars concerning various tourism-related topics. The Institute invites top scholars and industry leaders to deliver presentations at these events, discussing the latest trends in different fields. These activities help students to widen their horizons, and contribute to position IFTM as a regional hub for knowledge in the field of tourism and hospitality studies.

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