With tourism and hospitality research facing an unprecedented number of opportunities and challenges, the World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality on 10-13 December provided a timely global platform for academics, thought leaders and leading industry professionals to meet and discuss future directions of tourism and hospitality research and practice. The Summit took place at Hotel ICON, the teaching and research hotel built for the SHTM by PolyU.

The opening keynote presentations featured Professor John Tribe of the University of Surrey, who spoke on "Eighteen Paradoxes in Leisure and Tourism" and Professor Abe Pizam of the University of Central Florida, who delivered a speech entitled "The Domains of Tourism and Hospitality Management: Similarities and Differences".

Professor Chris Ryan of the University of Waikato spoke about "Today's Straws in the Wind – Tomorrow's Futures for Tourism?", and Professor Grace Gu of Beijing International Studies University discussed "Domestic and International Hotel Brands: China's Hotel Industry in International Context". Professor Richard Perdue of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University gave a speech on "Examining Structural Change in Tourism Research Environments".

Various workshops were also organised throughout the Summit. The first morning featured two concurrent workshops with one chaired by Professor Chris Ryan entitled "Developing Questionnaires" and another conducted by Professor Bob McKercher, Professor of the SHTM, entitled "Successful Manuscript Writing".

The Summit was closed by Professor Kaye Chon, Dean and Chair Professor of the SHTM, and Professor Rohit Verma of Cornell University. Dean Chon addressed the delegates with a speech entitled "Managing Service Quality and Standards in Tourism and Hospitality Industry" and Professor Verma spoke about "How Travellers Use Mobile, Online and Social Media Channels to Make Hotel-choice Decisions".

PolyU, the SHTM and Elsevier agreed that the Summit was a resounding success and thank all of the speakers and attendees for their contributions.