Current Issues of International Tourism Development Will Be Discussed at HSE – St.Petersburg
On February 5 - 6, 2015, The Master's Programme in Experience Economy hosts International Graduate Conference which will gather graduate students from Russia as well as internationally.
On February 5 - 6, 2015, The Master's Programme in Experience Economy hosts International Graduate Conference which will gather graduate students from Russia as well as internationally.
For the first time the St. Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics will hold an international student conference on tourism. The theme of the conference is 'Sustainable Tourism Development in the Changing World'. Academic supervisor of the master’s programme "Experience Economy: Management in Hospitality and Tourism" Valery Gordin has spoken to HSE News Service about the conference.
'Our conference is a pioneering one for the campus. Firstly, the working language of the conference is English, and among the speakers and participants there are foreign teachers and students. In recent years, student academic conferences in English have been organized by the Department of Foreign Languages. We develop this tradition and invite foreign students to participate. Secondly, students from Southeast Asia – South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan will take part in our conference. This is a very promising region for the development of HSE international relations. Thirdly, this conference is organized by two specializations of our master's programme – located in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One of the conference sections will be chaired by Marina Predvoditeleva, the academic supervisor of the programme specialization in Moscow.
Organization of the conference on tourism during the crisis, which we can witness on the Russian tourism market, is quite remarkable. We try to identify potential directions to exit the crisis, taking into account international experience. The first section is called 'Imageneering and Reimageneering of Tourist Destinations' and is focused on positioning tourist destinations, development and promotion of regional tourism brands, enhancing attractiveness of tourist regions. At the second section called 'Innovations in Tourism and Hospitality' papers devoted to numerous innovations in tourism will be presented. This is an area which currently concentrates a large number of social and technological innovations researched by students. The third section 'Issues of Youth Tourism' reflects an important current trend – formation and rapid development of specific youth travel market. This market is characterized not only by social and economic features, but also a wide variety of customers’ requirements.
Our keynote speaker, Professor Athinodoros Chronis from California State University Stanislaus, will open the conference with his lecture 'Tourism imaginaries'. He will also teach a very interesting course 'Consumer Behavior in Tourism and Hospitality' on our master's programme. In addition, the conference will host a round table discussion on 'Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality Development in the Uncertain World'.
Conference participants will also have an interesting cultural programme, based on a combination of cultural heritage and creative industries experience in St. Petersburg.
This conference will be interesting not only for students of the master's programme 'Experience Economy: Management in Hospitality and Tourism', but also for sociology and oriental studies students. We look forward to welcoming at our conference students and teachers from different programmes'.
Everyone is welcome to take part in the workshops and take the most from the conference experience!
Get more information on conference webpage or contact the organizing committee directly at step@hse.ru.