Principal Investigator

Prof. Haiyan Song, Chair Professor and Associate Director of School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Song has a background in Economics. His main research area is tourism economics with a particular focus on tourism demand modelling and forecasting. He was educated both in China and the UK and has extensive research and consultancy experiences. Over the years Professor Song has been involved in a number of projects on forecasting tourism demand in Hong Kong, Macau and other Asia countries such as Korea and Thailand. Prof. Song has written extensively on tourism forecasting methodologies. Two of his co-authored books on tourism forecasting have been well received by researchers and practitioners.

Co-Investigators

Prof. Kaye Chon, Chair Professor and Director of School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. A former hotel manager and tourism industry consultant, Prof. Chon previously held academic positions at the University of Houston, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Virginia Tech in the United States. During his academic career, he received numerous visiting professorships, research fellowships, and Visiting Lectureships from universities around the world. Among many academic and scholarly contributions, he has authored or edited seven books and has published over 200 papers in academic and professional journals.

Prof. Stephen Witt, Visiting Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Surrey, UK. He has also held lengthy visiting research positions at the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark, Victoria University, Australia and Mid-Sweden University, Sweden. Professor Witt's major research interests are econometric modelling of international tourism demand, and assessment of the accuracy of different forecasting methods within the tourism context. He has published 150 journal articles and book chapters, as well as 20 books.

Dr. Kevin K. F. Wong, Associate Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University was a former Fulbright Scholar who completed his post graduate studies at the University of Southern California. He has published extensively in international tourism and hospitality journals and has co-authored a book on Tourism Forecasting and Marketing. His areas of research interest include tourism demand modeling and forecasting, impact analysis, consumer behavior and strategic planning and management in the hospitality and tourism industry. Over the past few years, he has successfully completed several major consultancy projects for the Hong Kong tourism industry and served as an Economist for developing a Sustainable Tourism Development Master Plan for Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam in a project with the World Tourism Organisation, (UNDP), in November, 2003.  

Dr. Gang Li, Lecturer in Economics in the School of Management at The University of Surrey. Gang received his PhD degree from the University of Surrey. His research interests include Econometric analysis and forecasting with particular interests in tourism demand; Chinese economic issues especially Income Inequity and socio-economic development assessment. His consultancy work included a regional development assessment project for Liaoning Province, China, and evaluation of sales and marketing activities for Shenyang LG Electronic Co., China.

Research Personnel

Dr. Alina X.Y. Zhang, Research Associate in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Alina received her PhD degree from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering of The University of Hong Kong in 2006. Her research interests include ecommerce, game theory, supply chain management.

Mr. Philip B.G. Fei, Research Associate in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Philip is now studying for his PhD degree in Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.