Hospitality and Tourism Education in China: Development, Issues, and Challenges

This book is the first to systematically introduce China’s tourism education system and the various tourism education practices in China to the international audience and stakeholders. China has the world’s largest tourism education system, which consists of over 1,000 higher learning institutions with tourism-related programs and over half a million of tertiary-level students studying in these programs. Despite the industry scale, internationally, little is known about this tourism education system and how it operates. Knowledge and better understanding of China’s tourism education system are important as tourism becomes one of the critical forces transforming economy, society and environment.

The book offers an historical evaluation of China tourism education development and elaborates on the current industry status and practices in different subject fields of China’s tourism education, including tourism management, hospitality management, events and festival management in higher education, tourism vocational education, tour guides training and certification, master of tourism administration (MTA) education as a unique education model in China, PhD education in tourism, tourism curriculum, research and international collaboration in tourism education in China.

The book provides relevant knowledge to international tourism education providers, industry practitioners, human resource managers, government officials, and tourism academics, researchers, and students.

Jigang Bao is Professor in the School of Tourism Management and the Director of the Centre for Tourism Planning and Research at Sun Yat-sen University, China.

Songshan (Sam) Huang is Professor in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, Australia.