On 9th April, unveiling ceremony of Tourism Education and Training Base for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Shunde Collaboration Center) held in SDPT and the first training programme started simultaneously which marked as an important milestone for SDPT integrative development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Liang Yongxian, Special Adviser from Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of Macao SAR Government, Huang Zhujun, President of Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Hu Dazhong, President of Youth Cultural Exchange Association for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Huang Yanxia, Vice President of Shunde Committee CPPCC, Chen Peifang, President of Global Shunde Fellowship Organization, Huang Jianxiong, Chairman of Shunde Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and College Leaders Li Xianxiang, Liu Yu, Chu Xiaoming, Tang Kai and Gan Muyi attended the unveiling ceremony.
Secretary of SDPT Party Committee introduced educational achievements and international cooperative education level of Hotel and Tourism Management School . Moreover, SDPT will encourage comprehensive quality of tourism education to seize the opportunities brought about by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Initiatives, so as to further promote the development of Tourism Education and Training Base and actively explore Macao and Shunde higher education cooperation model, carry out international vocational skills training, improve tourism practitioners quality, and contribute to culture and tourism development.
Huang Zhujun, President of Macao Institute for Tourism Studies said that the experiences and strengths of Macao in tourism education and training and in developing its tourism industry should be leveraged to develop a tourism education and training base for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In 2017, IFTM became the world’s first higher education institution to pass International Quality Review(IQR) from UK’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education(QAA) and since the launch of the QS World University Rankings in the subject area of Hospitality and Leisure Management in 2017, the IFTM has been highly ranked in Asia and the world in general. IFTM ranked TOP 50 worldwide in 2020 Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for the subject area of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Driven by the tourism industry, the quantity and quality of higher education courses and professional training of tourism offered by Macao universities and colleges have been continuously improved. Macao is playing a leading role in the tourism education in Asia. It not only has internationally recognised courses and tourism and leisure buildings rare in the world offering a superior learning, internship and training environment, but also gathers experienced senior management talents in tourism and hospitality from all over the world. Therefore, as an important support to integrate into the development of the Greater Bay Area, the tourism education and training will consolidate Macao's tourism education status and leverage Macao's strengths to meet the needs of the country.
