Our GDTSA research team was invited to visit United Nations World Tourism Organization
Invited by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Project Leader of Guangdong Tourism Satellite Account Preparation and Information System Construction's (hereinafter referred to as GDTSA), the Professor Liu Jingyan, the Associate Professor Wu Chenguang and the Team Member Assistant Professor Ye Haobin, and the Senior Researcher Huang Xiang went to Madrid, Spain on December 12, and had a fruitful talks and exchanges with Asia Pacific Regional Director of World Tourism Organization Mr. Xu Jing, Expert team on Tourism Statistics including Project Director of Department of Statistics of UNWTO Ms. Clara Van Der Pol, Header of Statistics and TSA Ms. Leandry Moreno, Project Assistant of Asia Pacific Regional Ms. Harmony Lamm, and Assistant of Asia Pacific Department Mr. Li Yang.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Xu Jing. Ms. Clara, the Project Director of Department of Statistics of UNWTO, introduced the development and latest progress of tourism satellite accounts in the international level, including the preparation of regional tourism satellite accounts (such as the Italian regional accounts, Spanish accounts in city level) and the latest research trends and progress after the sustainable development is incorporated into tourism statistics in the future. GDTSA Project Team firstly played the promotional video from the Business School, the Professor Liu Jingyan and the Associate Professor Wu Chenguang, respectively, introduced research background and results of GDTSA and demonstrated the data information system of GDTSA, Teacher Ye and Huang, respectively, made the relevant supplement for them. GDTSA Project was commissioned by the Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province, and the Research Team is constituted of teachers and researchers from the Sun Yat-Sen Business School, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Guangzhou University, and the project research has been going on for 5 years. The research results of this report were highly appreciated by UNWTO experts. At the same time, Mr. Xu Jing and relevant experts also put forward valuable opinions and suggestions on further improvement and advancement of the project in the future, including regular networking meetings and communications with relevant organizations of tourism statistics, and expected that the research results will help developing countries, giving a lot of voice to China.
This visit was welcomed and received Mr. Xu Jing, Asia Pacific Regional Director of UNWTO, and his team's warm hospitality, Professor Liu Jingyan presented the souvenir "Dusing Lion" of Sun Yat-Sen University on behalf of the team, meaning further cooperation study and practice.
The visit has made us establish academic and business contacts with UNWTO, achieved fruitful results, and let the world understand our research results and also let our tourism research team get more display on the international stage and develop greater potential. The GDTSA team members will be invited by the UNWTO to participate in the annual meeting of the World Tourism Organization held in June next year; The relevant experts of the UNWTO will on invitation participate in the tourism academic seminar which is planned to hold jointly by the Sun Yat-Sen Business School and the China Tourism Academy next year.
This visit is also a meaningful practice to the University proposing "Enter the Mainstream, Set the Tide Head, Go out" initiated by our teachers. Based on the great team platform of Internet management innovation, the GDTSA Project will further integrate and play the great team's resources and advantages, and make more contributions to serve for regional development!
