SHTM blogs

New Dimension for PolyU Students

In the new academic year, the faculty members at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) may interact with their students not just on the campus, but also via the virtual world of Second Life.

PolyU Main Campus Building in Second Life

Across the PolyU campus, over 500 staff and students are already actively engaged in enhancing their learning and teaching experience on the Second Life platform through virtual tutorials and lectures, virtual assignments and placements.

PolyU is the first institution in Hong Kong to have an entire virtual campus in Second Life. The pioneering endeavour started with the idea of building a virtual hotel environment for the use of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM). The subsequent establishment of a virtual PolyU campus was made possible through support from the senior management and funding from the Educational Development Centre (EDC). A team of colleagues from the Departments of Applied Social Sciences (APSS), Computing (COMP), SHTM, School of Design, EDC and the Pao Yue-kong Library then collaborated to develop the currently used three islands in Second Life.

Virtual Career Fair in Second Life (9,000 visitors from around the world in one weekend)

Project leaders Mr Paul Penfold (SHTM), Dr David Kurt Herold (APSS) and Dr Vincent Ng (COMP) are keen to have the continued development of PolyU in Second Life. As Mr Penfold put it, “Second Life enables students and educators to create innovative environments for distance learning, computer-supported cooperative work, simulations and teaching. This use of simulation in a safe environment will greatly enhance experiential learning.”

SHTM Students on Virtual Field Trip to Rixos Hotel Turkey

Dr Herold echoed these sentiments based on his experiences in arranging virtual field trips for students of an Urban Studies course to the virtual cities of Moscow, New York, Dublin and Paris; and also for students of a Media Studies course to visit Media Corporations such as Reuters, CNN and Sky News. The visits were organized efficiently and without any financial involvement.

At the PolyU School of Design, students are using Second Life to try out different types of digital media including visual effects, character design and 3D modelling. At the same time, colleagues from COMP are using the platform to simulate business settings, thereby providing students with realistic interview practice. Students can access a wide variety of library materials and information about the library via the platform and links on the library’s intranet for additional information.

PolyU Resort Island (come and stay for a while)

The use of Second Life has enriched the curriculum of various courses of many disciplines and facilitated independent learning both inside and outside the classroom. Additionally, Second Life is also providing colleagues with new tools for collaboration with other academics and researchers worldwide. Academics from the US, Japan, Australia, or the UK can give lectures to students at PolyU from their hometown. Students and staff can attend virtual lectures, conferences, and meetings with peers from around the world within the Second Life environment.

In September, the University will also play host to the Hong Kong chapter of the world’s first 48-hour non-stop academic conference in Second Life. Officially known as SLActions 2009, the conference will span across different time zones around the globe, starting with Ghent University in Belgium, to universities in Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil and concluding at the University of California, Berkeley, US.

Second Life is an online platform developed by Linden Lab and its content is created by its “Residents”. It is claimed that there are now over 16 million users worldwide, with a peak of some 88,200 concurrent users during 2009. Many universities around the world have created their own virtual campus in Second Life.

(Thanks to CPA)

Posted at 04:57AM Aug 29, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

SHTM students design haunted house for Ocean Park, Hong Kong

An innovative team formed by Mr Joey Wu, Instructor of School of Hotel and Tourism Management, and his two second year students, Winston Li Ho-yin and Michelle Chau Man-ying, beat 70 other entries in the Halloween Haunted House Design Competition 2009 organized by Ocean Park and Milk magazine.

It was the first time Ocean Park asked Hong Kong people to design their own haunted house. Their winning entry “The Purgatory Express” , which took the team three weeks to develop, will be featured in the Park’s 9th Halloween Bash later this year. The team also won an eight-day trip to attend the Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention held in the USA.

(Thanks to PolyU CPA)

Posted at 04:38AM Aug 29, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Getting our Message Across in Hong Kong

"Do You Know Us? – You might not know them personally, but in fact they are well regarded internationally."

SHTM launched an advertising campaign in June this year in order to reinforce the profile of the School within the local community. The advertisements feature SHTM undergraduate students, all of whom have been exposed to overseas experience through work placements and international student exchange programmes.

It's the first time that we've ever used out-of-home advertising channels, such as the tramway and MTR, to place our advertisements. We had "our" trams running along the coastline on Hong Kong Island. And then the same advertisements appeared along the MTR trackside on a number of lines. To maximize the impact underground, we had also arranged for running messages to appear on the Info Panels inside the MTR trains.

Not forgetting our online community, both Yahoo!HK and MSN featured our advertisements. For the general readers, we had also arranged for Chinese and English advertisements to be placed in a number of newspapers in Hong Kong.

Let me know what you think about the ads and the campaign, thank you.

Pauline Ngan (SHTM Marketing Manager)

Posted at 12:02AM Aug 23, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Hong Kong Hotel Opens 'His Rooms'

Hong Kong has often led the way in hotel innovation and quality. Letting boys be boys, Hong Kong's Fleming Hotel has launched 'His Space': four rooms dedicated solely to men. Priced at HKD 1,400 (USD 180) a night, the rooms come complete with all manner of boys' toys: games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, an iPod docking station, a mini golf putting green and a variety of DVDs and men's magazines. Male guests can also take advantage of a 50% discount on selected imported beers as well as free local calls, broadband internet and cable television. To top it off, American breakfast, gym access and late checkout are also included in the deal.

Women needn't be jealous: the men's rooms were introduced after the success of 'Her Space', five rooms with enhanced security and female-focused amenities, which the Fleming Hotel introduced in 2007 (following the longer-standing trend of women-only hotel floors). Rooms for men, floors for women, party suites for teens... What's next?

Paul Penfold

Website: www.thefleming.com

Acknowledgement to: Springwise - and reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence

Posted at 06:25PM Aug 13, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

New staff appointments in SHTM

I am pleased to announce four new appointments to our School this month:

Mr. Richard Hatter has been appointed as General Manager of the new PolyU Teaching and Research Hotel. Brought up in East Africa and educated in UK, Richard brings with him over 25 years of solid international experience in the hospitality industry. He is highly respected in the industry and has developed his successful career progressively in one of the world's most famous international hotel groups - the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts since 1992. Richard has solid experience managing hotel repositioning, rebranding, refurbishment, renovation projects, pre-opening development and operation, and has been serving as the General Manager and Director in the Shangri-La Group's Asia region covering Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Indonesia. 

Dr. Steve Pan has returned to SHTM as an Assistant Professor. Steve was previously a Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer in our School and received his Ph.D. from Waikato University in New Zealand. Upon returning to his native Taiwan, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hospitality Management at Tunghai University, Taiwan and also served as a Deputy Director at the International Desk of China Television Company in Taiwan with expertise in analyzing and applying mass media materials for teaching and research.

Dr Kam Hung, Assistant Professor, is a graduate of SHTM (BA in Tourism Management). She went to the United States to pursue her graduate education, receiving both MSc and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she taught briefly as an assistant professor at Thompson Rivers University in Canada. Her research interests include tourism marketing, tourist behavior and psychology, senior travel, and cruise tourism.

Ms Jamie Lo, Tutor, received her BA (Hons) Hotel and Catering Management from SHTM in 2005 and is currently completing her MSc degree. Prior to joining SHTM, she worked for the Hong Kong Jockey Club an Assistant Restaurant Manager for four years.

Kaye Chon

Posted at 05:21AM Aug 13, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Our Thirtieth Anniversary

SHTM is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Our School had a humble beginning when it was established in 1979 with a small institutional foodservice diploma program. The School has grown over the past 30 years both in size and stature. We now enrol more than 1,700 students with close to 60 academic staff, which puts us among the largest schools of hotel and tourism management in the world. What we have now is a school which is ranked among the top four in the world amongst some 3,000 institutions in hospitality and tourism in terms of research and scholarship activities.

A number of events are planned through 2009-2010 in order to commemorate our achievement and success. The finale and highlight of the anniversary will be the grand opening of our teaching and research hotel in September 2010. By the way, the hotel has recently appointed a General Manager, Mr. Richard Hatter, who is a hotel industry veteran with 17 years career experience with Shangri-La Hotels Group.

In part of the 30th anniversary celebration, our School has decided to contribute to a community development program in the name of "Community Development through Tourism and Hospitality." The Kai Ping community in Guandong Province may be one of the first recipients of our support - further news to follow soon.

Kaye Chon

Posted at 05:54PM Aug 11, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Special Lecture from Prof. Francesco Frangialli

Today, 31 July we were very glad to have a visit from our friend and Honorary Professor, Francesco Frangialli, previously Secretary-General of the UNWTO. Prof Frangialli gave a very informative research seminar to staff and students at SHTM on "Tourism Statistics and TSA (Tourism Satellite Accounts) and their Application to Asian Countries." TSAs have been increasingly introduced by Tourism Ministries of Governments around the globe to provide accurate visitor data and tourism statistics which help immensely in tourism planning and development.

Thank you Prof Frangialli for your visit, we hope to see you in Hong Kong again soon.

Kaye Chon

Posted at 01:21AM Aug 01, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Supporting Tourism in Timor Leste

At the request of the Directorate of Tourism of the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry of the Government of Timor Leste and under the umbrella of APETIT and PATA,  Dr Thomas Bauer of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management  at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University recently spent one week in Lautem District of the country to assist in the assessment of the tourism potential  of the district.

Lautem is located in the far eastern part of Timor Leste ( 5 hours drive from the capital city Dili) and has a diversity of attractions including beautiful sandy beaches on Jako Island and in Tatuala subdistrict, rainforests and mountains.

The Portuguese heritage is still evident but many of the buildings that date back to the colonial history of the country are now dilapidated or in ruins and a major effort will be required to restore them to their former glory so that they can be fully utilized as tourism resources.

 A very interesting feature of the district are the ancient rock paintings at Ile Kere Kere  that depict boats, dancers and a painting of a hand that has a strong resemblance to the ones that can be found in northern Australia.

The ecolodge at Valu beach was established by a local NGO and was handed over to the local villagers for management. Their dedication to the project is demonstrated by the 8 kilometres one way that they have to walk from their village to the lodge  to cater to the needs of the tourists. It is an excellent example of poverty alleviation through tourism and a model that can be copied at other sites.

Timor Leste is emerging from a prolonged period of difficulties but its tourism future is bright. The roads may be in poor repair and the standard of the available accommodation and food  is still limited but the diverse landscapes, fantastic diving and the friendliness of the local people more than compensate for any shortcomings. Dili can be reached by air from Darwin, Bali and Singapore. For more information on Timor Leste visit http://www.turismotimorleste.com/en/

Thomas Bauer

Posted at 10:01PM Jul 30, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Visit to Kai Ping UNESCO heritage site in Guangdong Province

Recently I made a visit with Dr. Tony Tse, our School's Industry Partnership Program Director, to Kai Ping, a small community in Guandong located between Guangzhou and Zhuhai, to assess their community need in tourism development. We picked Kai Ping for this project for several reasons. It is located in the Pearl River Delta, which is in Hong Kong's neighborhood.

The community is a very unique one in that the area is famous for "daiolous" which are unusual, 3 to 5 storey houses built in the early part of the twentieth century. There is a sad origin to these houses. In the 1920's, many people from Kai Ping were sent to Canada or the US as labourers in railroad construction and the mining industry. Spouses and families could not travel with them, and so many of the married men had to leave their wives and children behind. These houses were built to protect the families from bandits - a large part of their hard earned income was sent back home and they built these daiolous so that their families could live in a protected, safe environment.

During our visit to Kai Ping, we met with the Kai Ping Tourism Administration officials to discuss various tourism industry training to be offered by SHTM to the community. One of the projects discussed was about retraining local farmers who may want to start small businesses in tourism and hospitality. The School believes that every one of us who is involved in the tourism industry can contribute to the well-being of the destinations in which they operate in order to ensure success and sustainability. With this in mind, SHTM would like to contribute to the cause by offering courses to villagers in Kaiping on a complimentary basis. I look forward to giving  you a further update on this project in due course.

Kaye Chon

Posted at 07:31PM Jul 28, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Asia Pacific Forum for Graduate Students Research in Tourism 2009

The 8th Asia Pacific Forum for Graduate Students Research in Tourism (known as APF) was held in Seoul, Korea, on 6-8 July. More than 20 SHTM staff and postgraduate students attended the Forum. I attended the Forum as the Founding Chairman of APF.

Since its inception in 2001, APF has over the years developed as an important research and networking forum for graduate students and faculty in hospitality and tourism in the Asia Pacific region. This year’s APF in Seoul proved to be another successful event despite recent challenges resulting from the global economic crisis and concerns with spread of the H1N1 influenza. The Forum host, Sejong University, did a superb job in organizing the conference and I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to its organizing team.

A series of developments in the hospitality and tourism industry and academia in Asia over the last decade has gradually defined the global trends in hospitality and tourism. I have referred to this phenomenon as “Asian Waves” in hospitality and tourism. Asia has become the most dynamic region for tourism development with rapid growth of both inbound and outbound tourist traffic. China, for example, is rapidly rising to become the world’s most visited country with estimated annual visitor arrivals of 130 million within the next ten years. At the same time, the country is now generating more than 40 million outbound tourists a year, which is remarkable when you consider that less than one million Chinese travelled for leisure purposes 30 years ago. Asia’s hospitality and tourism industry is now acclaimed for its very high quality of services, making Asia the global centre of excellence for hospitality and tourism. A quick glance at the world ranking of best hotels, airlines and airports all point to Asia as the global centre of tourism excellence. Likewise Asia’s universities and academics are aggressively participating in development of both education and research in hospitality and tourism field. I believe this trend will continue in the future.

I am personally excited with this development and I look forward to the role APF will continue to play in this aspect. Nonetheless, we must acknowledge that, while we have seen a rapid development of hospitality and tourism in recent years, we still have a lot more to do in developing and promoting Asia’s leadership both in industry and academia. In conceiving the APF, I once thought of the vision of “John the Baptist” in the Bible. He proclaimed that he had come to the world to pave the way for the one who was forthcoming and who was yet to be the greatest. We collectively need to work together to pave the way for the greatest generation of leadership in hospitality and tourism industry and academia. Through another successful APF this year, we are getting closer to this goal.

Kaye Chon

Posted at 11:31PM Jul 23, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Teaching Hotel Progress

The Teaching hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui East is making fast progress towards next year's opening. Building is already at the 12th Floor, and the new General Manager has been appointed. More news will be coming soon, but here is a recent aerial photo of the tenth floor.

Posted at 07:10PM Jul 13, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Career and Job Support for SHTM Students

The Hotel and Tourism industry offers students many different potential career options. Even though the current economic downturn has made finding those opportunities more challenging, it is still an industry that provides many choices.

However, students have many questions about specific career paths in the industry and even how to get started. Recognizing that fact, we have created a support system to help give students direction on the best career path for them. The School now provides three new approaches to do this. Firstly we have set up an “Academic Advising Programme” with a full time counsellor to help students make good academic decisions early in their student career. Secondly, we have added a “Voluntary Faculty Advising” support system for to help students with career advice. Faculty members have offered to join a “Voluntary Faculty Advising” pool to provide a service to existing students as well as graduating students on the options available to them for their careers, contact: hmwillie@inet.polyu.edu.hk for more details.

Thirdly, in order to assist our final year students in getting jobs in the hospitality industry and to facilitate our industry partners to recruit our graduates we have established a “Career Appointment Service (CAS).” The Career Appointment Service will follow up industry requests, collect more information about the offer, and communicate with our students, here is the contact: hmey@inet.polyu.edu.hk

As well as providing a rich educational experience for our students, we hope these new initiatives will enable our students to have the best advice and support as they launch their career in the hotel and tourism industry, whether it be in Hong Kong or overseas. If industry partners or students (and their parents) would like more information about these services, please get in touch with me - hmdjones@inet.polyu.edu.hk

David Jones (Undergraduate Programme Director)

Posted at 12:57AM Jul 09, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]

Welcome to the SHTM Blog

Posted at 07:49PM Jun 25, 2009 by Paul in General  |  Comments[0]