The Macau Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) hosted this year’s 5th annual Tourism Education Student Summit event (TEd Summit-2020) virtually yesterday.
According to an IFTM statement, the full-day event was an opportunity for IFTM’s top 44 graduating BSc students to share their research findings with industry leaders and the community at large.
“This unique event was an opportunity for some of the institute’s brightest stars to engage with industry in a discussion about the future development of tourism and hospitality within Macau and the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the statement said.
“IFTM views the training of young researchers as a strategic feature of its programmes. The skills required in the research process – critical thinking, problem identification and solution, analysis and deduction, etc. endow new graduates with capacity for managing future unknowns,” the statement said.
“It is through events such as TEd Summit-2020 that strategic stakeholders can preview the next generation of future hospitality and tourism leaders, who have their finger on the pulse of the current state of affairs within the Macau tourism industry,” the statement underlined.
“This year’s TEd Summit welcomed Prof. Sara Dolnicar, from the Tourism Department at UQ Business School (The University of Queensland, Australia) who delivered an inspirational keynote address on the environmental cost of the tourism industry and discussed how tourism businesses can make small changes to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations. For the industry keynote, the Summit was delighted by the participation of Grant Bowie, chief executive officer and executive director of MGM China Holdings Limited who shared valuable reflections informed by a lifelong career in the industry and provided insightful predictions for its future development,” the statement said.
Bowie announced recently that he will retire from his CEO role with effect from this coming Sunday.
Among all the papers presented by IFTM students, the Best Paper Scholarships were awarded to eight future tourism and hospitality leaders from IFTM. The best paper awardees are, according to the statement, Yuan Nanfang, Jiang Xinyi, Lei Peng Ieng, Lei San Lam, Chen Kun, Hoi Weng Ian, Lo Chak Kuan and Leong Lai Teng.
