On November 13, the 2021 Journal of Tourism Annual Conference on Tourism Research in China was held in the Zhongshan North Road Campus of East China Normal University (ECNU). The conference was organized by ECNU, Beijing Union University (BUU), and the Greenland Tourism Research Institute; hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Management of ECNU, the School of Tourism of BUU, and the Editorial Board of Journal of Tourism; and guided by the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau. This year's conference was held online and offline for the first time, and more than 30,000 people from the tourism industry and academia gathered in the cloud to participate in the event. The conference theme was “A New Stage, New Concept, and New Pattern of Tourism and Tourism Research.” The conference discussed frontier theories of tourism research and China's tourism industry in the new era and aimed to promote leading research on Chinese tourism and explore the future-oriented development of China's tourism industry and tourism disciplines.
Attendees to the opening ceremony included Cheng Meihong, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Culture and Tourism Bureau, Professor Lei Qili, Vice President of ECNU, Professor Yuan Zhigang, Director of the Academic Committee of the Faculty of Economics and Management of ECNU and the School of Economics of Fudan University, Li Ruizhong, General Manager of the Greenland Hotel and Tourism Group, and Professor Feng Xuegang, Dean of the School of Business Administration of ECNU as well as teachers and students from the Department of Tourism and Exhibition of ECNU. More than 60 editorial board members of the Journal of Tourism and more than 30,000 teachers and students from Peking University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, and other universities in China attended the conference online. The opening ceremony was hosted by Professor Feng Xuegang, Dean of the School of Business Administration, ECNU.
On behalf of ECNU, Lei Qili extended a warm welcome to the guests. He briefly introduced the current development of the school and its long-term efforts in teaching and research, talent training, and service to the country and society in the field of tourism.
Cheng Meihong introduced the development achievements and planning directions of culture and tourism in Shanghai. She believes that the annual meeting of the Journal of Tourism, as the largest and most influential tourism academic research conference in China, will certainly strengthen the communication and exchange between tourism research, government management, and industry, which will have a significant and far-reaching impact on the high-quality development of Chinese culture and tourism and promote the high-quality development of Shanghai tourism.
Professor Yan Xuyang, Executive Vice President of the School of Tourism, BUU, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Tourism, delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the Journal of Tourism. He remarked that tourism development under normalized epidemic prevention and control is facing more complex opportunities and challenges.
The conference keynote presentation was divided into two sessions. The first session was hosted by Professor Feng Xuegang. Professor Yuan Zhigang delivered a keynote speech titled Allocation Efficiency of Production Factors and Common Prosperity.
Professor Hang Kan of the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University and the Director of the Yungang Research Institute gave a keynote speech on Cultural Tourism Integration and the Development of the Yungang Scenic Area.
Zhang Lingyun, Executive Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Tourism and Distinguished Professor of the School of Tourism, BUU, gave a keynote speech on Exploring the Creation of a National Cultural Park: The Example of the Yellow River National Cultural Park.
The second session was hosted by Professor Wu Bihu from the School of Urban and Environmental Studies, Peking University.
Professor Yang Zhenzhi from the School of Tourism, Sichuan University delivered a keynote speech on Tourism Healing: Improving Tourists’ Quality of Life and the High-Quality Development of Tourism.
Li Ruizhong gave a speech on Innovative Thinking and Practice of the Greenland Hotel and Tourism Group, focusing on high-quality development and comprehensive capacity enhancement centering on improving business operation capacity, corporate branding capacity, organizational management capacity, and industry linkage capacity.
After the keynote speech, Professor Zhang Lingyun hosted the award ceremony of the Journal of Tourism in 2020.
Finally, Wu Qiaohong, Director of the Editorial Department, announced that the 2022 Annual China Tourism Research Conference of the Journal of Tourism will be hosted by the School of Tourism of Sichuan University. Professor Li Zhiyong, Vice Dean of the School of Tourism, Sichuan University, stated that the School of Tourism of Sichuan University would be a good host and try to organize the 2022 Annual China Tourism Research Conference well.
The themes of the annual conference include The New “Double Cycle” Development Pattern and Tourism Relaunch; Red Tourism and National Identity; Tourism Data Forecasting and Decision Making; Tourism, Leisure City and Characteristic Blocks; Rural Tourism and Rural Revitalization; Regional Cultural and Tourism Integration and the Development of Urban Clusters; Online New Cultural Tourism and Intelligent Services; Exhibition and Sports Tourism; Tourism Economic Theory Frontier and Innovation; Tourism Geography Research Tradition and Transformation; Tourism, Leisure, and Social Progress; Heritage Conservation and Heritage Tourism; Tourism Innovation and a New Business Forms; Tourist Behavior and New Tourism Consumption; Water Tourism and Shoreline Resources Development; and Tourism Education and the Future of the Discipline.
Copy editor: Henry Allen
Editor: Li Yinan
