Tourism Higher Education Collaboration in China

ABSTRACT

This study explores tourism higher education collaboration in China within the broader Chinese context of Government-Industry-Education- Research collaboration. Tourism higher education institutions frequently collaborate with government, industry, educational and research institutions; however, little academic research systematically and comprehensively explores such issues. This study provides a holistic approach to examine models of collaboration and analyze the nature of collaboration by bringing different collaborators together, namely: governments, industry, other educational and research institutions. It puts the discussion in a historical and broader context, and adopts a comparative approach. Western strategy and management theories as well as Chinese culture and philosophies are integrated in the discussion. The study views collaboration as a process and discusses the important factors for collaboration in the process. Theoretical and management implications are discussed. This research provides strategic and managerial implications to Chinese universities on their collaboration activities with governments, industry, other educational and research institutions.

摘要

在中国政-产-学-研的背景下, 本研究探讨了中国旅游高等教育合作。中国旅游高等教育机构与政府, 企业, 教育和研究机构有广泛且 频繁的合作;但英文文献中很少有学术研究系统, 全面地探讨这个问题。在历史发展和更广阔的背景下, 本研究全面分析并比较了不同的合作者 (即政府, 行业, 其他教育和研究机构), 合作模式以及合作性质。讨论中融合了西方战略和管理理论以及中国文化和哲学。本研究将合作视为一个过程, 并讨论了过程中不同阶段影响合作的重要因素。本研究为中国高等教育机构与政府, 行业, 其他教育和研究机构的合作提供了战略和管理启示。

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• China
• education
• government
• industry
• research
• tourism

关键词:

• 合作
• 中国
• 教育
• 政府
• 行业
• 研究
• 旅游

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Professor John Ap from Macao Institute for Tourism Studies for proofreading the manuscript and providing constructive comments.

We highly appreciate the support from the interviewees during COVID-19 period.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

China National Office for Philosophy and Social Science, Culture and Tourism Integration Development Project (20ZDA067

Notes on contributors

Jingjing Yang

Jingjing Yang currently works at Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, PR China. She has international working experience in Mainland China, Macao, UK and New Zealand. She has worked not only in academics, but also in government, tourism industry, tourism planning and consultancy (E-mail: [email protected])

Honggang Xu

Honggang Xu is Professor, Dean of School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University, PR China. Her research areas include System Dynamics, Tourism Geographies, Mobilities (E-mail: [email protected]).