APTA 2018
Conference Report
The 24th Asia Pacific Tourism Association Annual Conference took place in Cebu, Philippines, from the 3rd to the 6th of July 2018. The annual conference was co-hosted by the University of Philippines with support from the Department of Tourism, Philippines. Under the chairmanship of Dr. Yeong-Hyeon Hwang (Dong-A University, Korea), the APTA 2018 annual conference was very successful. 205 valuable delegates attended, from 17 different countries or regions (Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA, Vietnam). There were academics, researchers, industry practitioners, and city/government officials, and making the conference such a huge success by sharing their valuable ideas for sustaining the hospitality, leisure, and tourism industries.
After double-blind reviewing processes, a total of 126 research papers (about 25% of 170 submitted papers were rejected) were presented in poster/concurrent sessions during the three days of the conference. The issues of this year’s research presentations were categorized into 10 domains: Tourism Marketing and Consumer Behavior, Information & Technology, Special Interests Tourism, Tourism-Government Policy, Education, Tourism Community Involvement, Destination Management, Medical Tourism, Hospitality Operational Management, and Corporate Social Responsibility.
During the conference, Mr. Benito C. Bengzon, Undersecretary of Philippine Department of Tourism was invited to give speeches about tourism issues in ASEAN tourism – “ASEAN Tourism: It’s Development and Challenges”. For the graduate panel session, Dr. Kaye Chon (Hong Kong Poly U.), Dr. Sara Dolnicar (U. of Queensland), Dr. Daniel Fesenmaier (U. of Florida), and Dr. Muzzo Uysal (U. of Massachusetts), served to lead the great panel discussion about changing publication metrics, and issues facing the editors of reputable journals. The graduate panel session entitled “Swimming with Sharks? Navigating Your Way through the Increasingly Treacherous Waters around Academe” was moderated by Dr. Perry Hobson (J. of Vacation Marketing).
Two panel sessions were offered in 24th APTA annual conference. The first APTA panel session on “Tourism Certification System in Asia” was moderated by Dr. Gabrielle Walters (University of Queensland). In the panel session, the three panels first introduced the respective tourism accreditation/certification systems of Korea: Korea Quality (KQ) of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) by Dr. Seul Ki Lee (Sejong University), Philippines: Department of Tourism (DOT) Accreditation by Dr. Reil Cruz (University of the Philippines), and Hong Kong: British Standards Institution (BSI) Certification by Dr. Sangwon Park (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University: HKPU). Dr. Lee introduced the various incentives offered by the KTO, including marketing programs, education/training, consulting reports based on online/offline data, and financial support. Dr. Park explained how the HKPU is familiarizing the students with the BSI quality standard through integrated coursework. After the presentations and discussions, the panel acknowledged the importance of a quality management system in enhancing the competitiveness of the tourism industry.
The second panel session entitled “The Future of Tourism Research: What and How Should We Study and Will Robots Do It Instead of Us” were offered by Dr. Sara Dolnicar (U. of Queensland), Dr. Muzzo Uysal (U. of Massachussetts), Dr. Daniel Fesenmaier (University of Florida) and Dr. Soocheong Jang (Purdue University). The panel session offered to the audience an overview of changing research designs and methods with IT revolution, emerging research topics in tourism and hospitality research, highlighting the challenges and opportunities to better understand “The Future of Tourism Research.” At the end, the session had Q & A time to shed light on major issues in changing research paradigm reflecting the audience’s ideas and questions.
After double-blind reviewing processes, a total of 126 research papers in poster/concurrent and 8 papers in TiP were selected to present at this conference. Among the papers presented, the first Best Paper Award was presented to Yasuo Ohe (Chiba University) for his paper – “On the Relationship between Operator's Identity and Efficiency in Dairy Farms Performing Educational Tourism: An Application of Slacks-Based Measure DEA Models.” The second Best Paper Award was given to Atsushi Kawakub and Takashi Oguchi from Rikkyo University for their paper entitled “What Promotes Happiness of Vacationers?” The TiP Session Best Paper Award was presented to Pia Rhoda Pinpin-Lucero (Lyceum of the Philippines U.) who drew up paper- “Competencies for a Career in Hospitality Industry in the Philippines in 2030.” APJTR Article of the year 2017 was given to Guanhui Qiao, Nan Chen, & Bruce Prideaux for thier paper – “Understanding interactions between beggars and international tourists: the case of China”.
Since 2016, APTA has presented the Founder’s (Dr. Hai-Sik Sohn) Award to commemorate the excellent leadership of the late Dr. Sohn. The late Dr. Sohn (1940-2016) was the founder of APTA who had made significant contributions to APTA while serving as its Inaugural President between 1995 – 2005. The first Founder’s (Dr. Hai-Sik Sohn) Award was given to Prof. Kaye Chon (Hong Kong Poly U.), and the second recipient was Prof. Emeritus Manat Chaiswat (Prince of Songkla U.). This year, the Founder’s award went to Dr. Corazon Gatchalian, Professor of University of Philippines, to recognize her dedication to developing and sustaining the hospitality, leisure, and tourism education in Asia Pacific region.
Our annual conference sponsors are a key component to the overall success of the vial event in APTA. We hope you to join us and be identified as a core group of academic and industry organizations that have earned a highly regarded status with our conference attendees and their extended reach. A total of 11 organizations supported the APTA conference 2018 including U. of Philippines, Dong-A U., Cal Poly Pomona, Department of Tourism Philippines, The Hong Kong Poly U., Korea Medical Tourism Association, Our Lady of Fatima U., Institute for Tourism Studies, Korea Tourism Organization, Wakayama U., and U. of North Texas.
Awards
APTA Founder’s (Dr. Hai-Sik Sohn) Award
Dr. Corazon Gatchalian, University of the Philippines
APTA 2017 Best Papers
Yasuo Ohe(Chiba Univeristy), “On the Relationship between Operator's Identity and Efficiency in Dairy Farms Performing Educational Tourism: An Application of Slacks-Based Measure DEA Models.”
Atsushi Kawakub and Takashi Oguchi (Rikkyo University), “What Promotes Happiness of Vacationers?”
APTA 2017 Thesis-in-Progress Session Paper Award
Pia Rhoda Pinpin-Lucero (Lyceum of the Philippines U.), “Competencies for a Career in Hospitality Industry in the Philippines in 2030.”
APJTR Article of the year 2016
Guanhui Qiao, Nan Chen, & Bruce Prideaux, “Understanding interactions between beggars and international tourists: the case of China”
