From 17 to 18 October 2017, the 4th International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality was successfully held in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. This conference themed “International Tourism Higher Education Collaboration, Towards a Responsible and Sustainable Tourism” was co-hosted by Association of Indonesian Tourism Tertiary Education Institution (AITTEI) and Wuxi Education Association for International Exchanges, organized by Wuxi Institute of Technology (WXIT). ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), as the supporter of the event, participated in related activities.

During the conference, Mr. Gong Fanghong, President of Wuxi Institute of Technology, and Dr. Ir. Bambang Supriyadi, Private Universities Coordinator of Indonesia respectively delivered keynote speeches titled “Vocational Higher Education Institutions’ Connotation Building and Development Thoughts”, and “the Role of Higher Education Institutions in Sustainable Tourism: the Implementation in Indonesia”. Dr. I Gusti Putu Laksaguna, President of National Tourism Professional Board of Indonesia, and the representatives from University of Malaysia, Pelita Harapan School of Tourism and Hospitality of Indonesia, International Management Institute of Switzerland respectively gave presentations on “Using Big Data for Tourism Business Analytics and Decision Support”, “Enhancing Quality and Professionalism of Tourism Human Resources through Competency Based Education and Training”, “The Milestones of Indonesia Sustainable Tourism Destination, and Policy Implementation for Heritage Attractions”. All speakers pinpointed opportunities and challenges in achieving sustainable development of tourism industry from different perspectives, and interacted with each other on ASEAN-China exchanges and cooperation in tourism, education and other areas.

This conference selected over 40 representative academic papers on tourism and hospitality to be presented and discussed. During the open discussion session, representatives from foreign and Chinese education institutions conducted in-depth discussions and exchanged views with each other and signed more than 30 MOUs with fruitful outcomes.