Co-organised by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in collaboration with the SHTM and the Guilin Municipal Government, the Fourth UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook will be held in Guilin, China, on 2-4 September 2010.

Now in its fourth year, the forum will provide a platform for government officials, tourism authorities, industry practitioners and academics to share their perspectives, strategies and practices on domestic and regional tourism during and after the economic crisis.

This year's forum will focus on domestic and regional tourism as a mechanism in the resilience of destination and source market economies. Domestic tourism has been booming in many destinations, particularly in developing economies, and has served as an effective mechanism of economic resilience. Coupled with regional tourism collaboration, domestic tourism holds enormous promise and has implications for economic and social development as well as policy orientation for an array of destinations.

A technical session focused on domestic and regional tourism as a strategy for the resilience of destination economies after the crisis will be held on the first day of the forum. The second day will feature a plenary session open to a broad audience and devoted to discussing the strategies, practices and growth trends of domestic and regional tourism as economic resilience.

For more information, please visit the forum website: www.unwto.org/asia/guilinforum/en/guilin.php. For enquiries, please contact Dr Honggen Xiao of the SHTM at hmhgxiao@polyu.edu.hk.