Many interesting papers (84 papers) in various fields (e.g., Tourism development, hospitality and tourism marketing, information technology, sustainable tourism, hospitality and tourism education, human resource management) were presented at the conference. In addition, there were 2 keynote speeches. Dr. Kelly Bricker, who is the Chair of Board for the Global Sustainable Tourism, University of Utah, presented with the topic of “Working towards a Greater Good: The Role of Ecotourism in Supporting the Millennium Development Goals”. Dr. Maria Gravari-Barbas, who is the Director of Institute for Research and High Studies on Tourism, Sorbonne University, delivered a speech about “Asian World Heritage: Major Destinations for European”.

Among 84 papers presented, The Best Paper Awards were given to Seul Ki Lee and SooCheong (Shawn) Jang for their paper “Spillover of Promotion: Spatial Dependence among Atlantic City Casinos”, and to Ching-Hung Chang, Po-Tsang Chen, Hsin-Hui Hu, and Brian King for their paper “The Effect of Newness of Physical Surroundings on Theme Park Visitors’ Repurchase Behaviour”. The Dr. HaiSikSohn (Conference founder) Award was given to Bruce Prideaux, Catherine Russel, and Cristina Rodrigues for their paper “Understanding the Role of Risk in Decisions to Travel to a Tropical Destination”.

Overall, the APTA 2011 Seoul Conference undoubtedly promoted more exchanges between tourism industries in Asia-Pacific. In addition, this conference provided ample academic spaces and opportunities for the tourism/hospitality scholars and industry professionals to share and exchange their research outcomes and ideas. The venue for the APTA 2012 Conference will be Taipei, Taiwan.