Prof. Karl Wöber chairs the inaugural meeting of the Expert Committee of the World Tourism Cities Federation
July 22, 2013
Professor Karl Wöber, Founding President of MODUL University Vienna, chaired the inaugural meeting of a group of 13 city tourism experts who were invited by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) to promote the development of global tourism cities via academic research activities and to develop a worldwide evaluation system for city tourism.
Cheng Hong, Deputy Mayor of Beijing, and Lu Yong, Secretary General of the WTCF and Director of the Beijing Tourism Development Committee, also attended the meeting. The Deputy Mayor shared her warm congratulations for the foundation of Expert Committee, noting that it provides a solid academic platform for the WTCF and exerts a positive and profound influence on improving the levels of academic research through the advantageous input from international city tourism experts. She also expressed her hope to work together with member cities and organizations to make the WTCF the leading forum for the international city tourism industry.
Professor Karl Wöber, who his internationally well-known for his expertise in city tourism, had the honor to lead the inaugural opening ceremony of the WTCF Expert Committee meeting, and congratulated the Deputy Mayor for the leadership Bejing has taken in founding the WTCF.
At the meeting, Professor Wei Xiao’an, Director of Academic Committee of China Tourism Academy and Professor at Minzu University of China, was elected as Chairman of the Expert Committee, and Professor Morrison from Purdue University, Professor Zhang Hui from Beijing Jiaotong University and Professor Zou Tongqian, Head of Hospitality Travel and Tourism Management at Beijing International Studies University were elected as Vice Chairmen of the Expert Committee.
Other members of the Expert Committee include Professor Lindsay Turner, Victoria University (Australia), Dr Roger Carter, Managing Director of TEAM Tourism Consulting (UK), Dr. Ding Peiyi, Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute at Griffith University (Australia), Professor Tokumura Shisei, Hangzhou Normal University (China), Professor Larry Yu, George Washington University (USA), Mr. Takamatsu Masato, Managing Director and Chief Research Officer of Japan Tourism Marketing Co., Dr. Meng Fang, Assistant Professor in the School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management at the University of South Carolina (USA), Mr. John Koldowski, advisor on research issues to the CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), and the Head of the Service Innovation & Development Unit within the College of Innovation at the Thammasat University (Thailand), Professor Li Mingde, vice-chairman and senior research fellow of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Wu Bihu, Beijing University (China), and Professor Karl Wöber, Founding President of MODUL University Vienna and Technical Advisor to European Cities Marketing.
The “Expert Committee Charter” was discussed, and Prof. Wei Xiao’an explained the objectives of the Expert Committee that will be a permanent institution of the WTCF as a platform to provide academic communications between member cities. He pinpointed four objectives to consider while discussing issues on carrying out daily work. First, the appraisal system on world tourism cities will be discussed and published annually; second, a report on the development of world tourism cities will be produced annually; third, daily communication mechanisms will be established to strengthen the communication and mutual comprehension between expert members, and fourth to research issues from the WTCF and development plans from the city members and to report the research achievement results in time.
In this successful inaugural meeting, in-depth discussions were undertaken on the “World Tourism City Appraisal System” and the “Fundamental Framework of World Tourism City Services (Beijing Consensus)”. Both declarations will be published during the Second Fragrant Hills Summit in September, 2013.
Find more information at:
http://www.wtcf.org.cn/english/
http://www.europeancitiesmarketing.com/
