Shanghai Institute for Tourism at Shanghai Normal University, China in conjunction with the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University held the Second East West Dialogue on Tourism and the China Dream on the 24th and 25th of September 2016. The first dialogue was held on the Gold Coast in 2014.

The focus of this year’s event was on sustainable tourism and national parks. This is currently an important issue in China as it is developing a national park system to be introduced in 2017 or 2018. At present there are numerous central, provincial, and local government organisations in China that administer public lands visited by tourists. These cover a range of natural, cultural, and recreational attractions with many providing important sources of funding for regional economic development.

The speakers included Chinese and international experts as well as park managers and officials from central government agencies. Overall around 120 people attended the event, including Prof Noel Scott, Dr Peiyi Ding and Dr Ying Wang from the Griffith Institute for Tourism. Prof. Scott presented a keynote on “Experience evaluation and design in National Parks”.

See photos of the event here.

This article was written by Griffith Institute for Tourism member Professor Noel Scott.