Speakers

Pr Kaye CHON

Professor Kaye Kye-Sung Chon is Dean of School and Chair Professor of Hotel and Tourism Management. A former hotel manager and tourism industry consultant, Professor Chon previously held academic positions at the University of Houston, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Virginia Tech in the United States. During his academic career, he received numerous visiting professorships, research fellowships, and Visiting Lectureships from universities around the world. Among many academic and scholarly contributions, he has authored or edited ten books and has published over 200 papers in academic and professional journals.

Professor Chon twice received Teaching Excellence Award and four times received Research Excellence Award, including the John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Award from International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (CHRIE) and the Martin Oppermann Memorial Award from International Society of Travel & Tourism Educators (ISTTE) for his contribution to tourism education. In 2003, he was recognized by his alma mater Georgia State University's Cecil B Day School of Hospitality Management as "Most Outstanding Alumni in 30 Years of History," and he was the first recipient of University of Delaware's Michael D. Olsen Research Award. In 2007, he received the Howard B. Meek Award from CHRIE for his lifetime contribution to education and scholarship in hospitality and tourism. He is honoured by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) with the prestigious UNWTO Ulysses Prize 2011.

Miguel GALLEGO

Miguel Gallego has more than ten-year experience in destination marketing. Having worked in different levels of tourism administrations, from city tourism boards to regional and national tourism organisations; since 2012 he is Head of Marketing and Communication at the European Travel Commission (Brussels, Belgium), where he coordinates different EU-funded projects in the field of tourism and supports member NTOs’ marketing activities to promote Destination Europe on major long-haul outbound travel markets such as China.

He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and lecturer in tourism. He has contributed to several publications and research papers on destination marketing and tourism development.

Françoise GED

Françoise Ged, architect, has launched research first about the urban fabric in Shanghai from 1842 to 1995 to finalize her Ph.D. degree at EHESS (Paris) in 1997, then about Chinese heritage policies for her H.D.R degree (Paris 7) through various Franco-Chinese cooperation case analyses during 2001. She is head of the Observatoire de l’architecture de la Chine contemporaine at the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, major public cultural facilites in France. She is an associate researcher at the Centre Chine Corée Japon. She took part at the bilateral city professional training cooperation “150 Chinese architects, urban and landscape planners in France 1998-2005,” the major program of the French embassy in China.  She cooperates with UNESCO for the World Urban Forum (WUF) IV in Nanjing, organization of the side event with the University of East China and publication of Historic Cities Revitalization, a Social and Human Approach.

Pr Maria GRAVARI-BARBAS

Professor Maria Gravari-Barbas is Vice-Provost for International Relations in Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She has a degree in Architecture and Urban Design (University of Athens, 1985) and a PhD in Geography and Planning (Paris 4 – Sorbonne, 1991). She is the Director of the EIREST, a multidisciplinary research team dedicated to tourism studies, with main focus cultural heritage, development, and urban-tourism evolutions. From 2008 to 2017 she was the director of the Institute for Research and High Studies on Tourism (IREST) of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Since 2009 she is the director of the UNESCO Chair of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the coordinator of the UNITWIN network “Tourism, Culture, Development”, comprising 30 top level universities all around the world, including in China.

Pr Kevin HANNAM

Professor Kevin Hannam is currently Dean of the Faculty of International Tourism at City University of Macau and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg. He is a founding co-editor of the journals Mobilities and Applied Mobilities (Routledge) and has published over 100 research articles and book chapters. He has a PhD in geography from the University of Portsmouth and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS).

Caroline PAUL

Caroline Paul graduated with an MBA in International Travel Management and started her career working for Havas Voyages American Express. She has been travelling all over the world for 15 years assisting brands in organizing their business trips (Meeting Incentive Congress Event). In France, she particularly organizes visits to her clients' Chinese distribution networks.

 In 2012, Caroline Paul founded Talents/China Travels, an international tourism marketing agency specialized in the Chinese outbound tourism market, to face the challenges of acquiring new individual Chinese millennials tourists in France and Europe. Talents/China Travels is based in Paris and Shanghai.

An expert in tourism and the Chinese digital ecosystem, she supports all the stakeholders in the tourism industry, retail and luxury in France and Europe in the digital transformation of China and the acquisition of new tourist customers : Château de Versailles, Château de Fontainebleau, Château de Chambord, Loire Valley and its 22 castles, the hotels of the Barriere group and Oetker Collection, Compagnie des Alpes, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Vallée Village, Ladurée, Cartier, etc.

Changxue SHU

Changxue SHU has been trained as architect, urbanist, historian and conservator of architecture. Her scholarly works focus on condition and future of built heritage under EU-China contacts and dynamics in the 19th and 20th centuries, tangible and intangible angles included. Her personal interests, however, broadly cover how the heritages are reconceived and reused today and, in what ways they are influencing Chinese or European societies, including the increasing Chinese travellers to Europe.

She has been a member of the Asian Academy for Heritage Management (AAHM)-UNESCO since 2009. Currently shework in University of Leuven as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (Post-Doc) at the Department of Architecture and Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation. She received her PhD in Conservation of Architectural Heritage from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy (2013). Afterwards she was granted a fellowship to join the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK (2015–16), and has collaborated with the Institute for Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage, National Research Council of Italy, Florence (CNR-ICVBC). She is a Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)-Getty International Program Grantee and member of the SAH. She holdsBachelor's and Master's degrees in Architecture from Tongji University, Shanghai, as well as a Master's in Integrated International Urban Studies from Bauhaus-UniversitätWeimar, Germany.

Pr Dominique VANNESTE

Dominique Vanneste is Professor at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Division of Geography & Tourism. She is involved in the research groups of Human Geography and Tourism and is the director of a Research and Development Unit ‘ASTOR’ (Association for Tourism Research) as well as program director for the Erasmus Mundus Master in Sustainable Territorial Development. She represents KU Leuven with the UNITWIN-UNESCO network ‘Tourism, Culture, Development’, together with prof. Koen Van Balen and prof. Noël Salazar.

Her main research interests and lecturing topics are: Economic geography (regional development, networking and location factors), Historical geography (relationship between landscape, heritage, identity and conservation) and Tourism (sustainable tourism and governance, heritage tourism, geo-tourism). Her research approach combines these elements looking at tourism and heritage as a lever for local and regional development and the role of stakeholders in general and networks in particular.

Pr Chengzhao WU

Professor WU Chengzhao is Ph.D. candidate supervisor of Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. He is also member of Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), member of America George Wright Society (GWS), member of America Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA), deputy secretary of International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA), vice chairman of Regional Tourism Development Professional Committee, Regional Science Association of China (RSAC), vice chairman of Tourism Geography Professional Committee, Geographical Society of China (GSC), member of Landscape Planning &Design Professional Committee, Urban Planning Society of China (UPSC), member of Academic Committee of Tourism Tribune.

Pr Hong XU

Professor XU Hong has an education background of both tourism management and economics in Nankai University. She taught at Tourism Department of Nankai University since 1984 and serves the China Tourism Education Association, China Women Travel Committee, China Tourism Association, China Travel Leisure Association, Economic Research Association of Tianjin Bohai Rim, Tianjin Municipal Government Advisory Committee, and some other important associations and organizations as well.

Her main interest areas are tourism industry ecology, tourism destination competence, tourism supply-chain management, tourism enterprises strategy and innovation management, and service management and financial management. To date, Professor Xu is the author and co-author of over 80 scientific publications. Over years she has accumulated extensive research and consultancy experiences in tourism industry management and service management.

Dr Minja YANG

President & professor at Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation of KU Leuven) since 2010 after 30 years’ service in UNHCR and UNESCO. From human settlements of refugee camps, her interest grew in vernacular architecture then to heritage cities, alongside her continuous query on culture and development. She was Deputy Director, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, then Director, UNESCO Regional Office in Delhi.

Pr Chaozhi ZHANG,

Dr. Chaozhi Zhang is professor and the Associate dean of tourism at School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University China. He holds a doctoral degree of tourism management and focuses his research on tourism development in heritage destinations. Over years, Professor Zhang has played significant roles in a number of international organizations and consultancy projects within the areas of heritage conservation and sustainable tourism, which have considerable impact on heritage tourist destination management of China. Two of his books on heritage tourism have been well received by researchers and practitioners, and many of his work has appeared in top tier Chinese and English journals.

Ms Yu ZHANG, Consultant, journalist and cultural engineer

With an MA in Culture and Media Management of Sciences Po Paris and a BA in French of Shanghai International Studies University, Yu Zhang started in the event industry in Shanghai before working with some of the major French publishing houses on editorial projects of exhibition catalogues and art books during her study and later as a freelance editor. She joined the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in Paris in 2009 and was Head of Communications and Publications between 2014 and 2016. In addition to raising the international profile of the organization, she also managed international projects connecting the organization with partners in Brazil, China, Italy, etc.

She contributes regularly on cultural subjects for newspapers and magazines in China and lecture internationally on Chinese museums' practice. She now dedicates herself to China-related cultural projects and provide consulting services and training to institutions. 

Pr Tongqian ZOU

Pr ZOU holds a Ph.D. in Management, Nanjing University. Professor of Tourism, Beijing International Studies University. Executive Vice President, China Academy of “One Belt and One Road” Strategy.

Professor Zou is the Vice Chair of World Tourism Cities Federation Expert Committee, the Vice President of China Tourism Education Association, a member of National MTA Education Steering Committee, Degree Committee of the State Council. He was awarded the honors of “Beijing Great Wall Scholar”, “Beijing Outstanding University Teacher”. Professor Zou is the chief lecturer of the State Fine Course “Tourism Attraction Management”.

Professor Zou is the chief investigator of several projects, including: “Guidelines for Good Tourism”, sponsored by UNESCO, “Strategic Management for Heritage Tourism Resources in China”, sponsored by China National Fund for Social Sciences, etc.. He has written or edited 12 books and published over 100 papers in academic or professional journals. Publications include: Study on the Management Pattern of Tourism Attraction in China, Heritage Tourism Management, etc. Professor Zou’s researches focus on tourism destination development and management, heritage tourism, and rural tourism.