On 2-4 December 2010, Professor Kaye Chon visited Hainan University Tourism College in Hainan, China. He also delivered a special lecture to Hainan University students on "Career Development".

Dr Hanqin Zhang attended the 4th International Borneo Business Conference 2010 organised by the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Malaysia, Sarawak on 13-15 December 2010.

Dr David Jones, Dr Jinsoo Lee and Ms Chloe Lau were invited to be the Instructors for the Global Certificate in Meetings and Business Events II (GCMBE II) Programme co-hosted by the Beijing Tourism Administration (BTA) and Meeting Professionals International (MPI) in Beijing, China, on 13-17 December 2010. They delivered the programme to 70 meeting and event professionals.

Professor Kaye Chon and Dr Cindy Heo attended the 16th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism in Houston, USA, on 6-8 January 2011. Professor Chon was the Founding Chairman of the conference and served as Co-Chair of this year's event. Dr Heo presented a paper entitled "Restaurant Revenue Management: Do Perceived Scarcity of Space in a Restaurant and the Price Difference Matter?"

A number of SHTM staff attended the 18th International Conference on Information Technology and Travel and Tourism in Innsbruck, Austria, on 26-28 January 2011. The following faculty members presented papers at the conference.

• Professor Rob Law and Ms Rosanna Leung co-presented a paper entitled "An Analysis on Human Personality and Hotel Web Design: A Kohonen Network Approach"
• Professor Law, Dr Andy Lee and Mr Daniel Leung co-presented a paper entitled "Adopting Web 2.0 Technologies on Chain and Independent Hotel Websites: A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong"
• Prof Law, Dr Norman Au, Dr Catherine Cheung and Ms Crystal Ip co-presented a paper entitled "Travel Preferences of Overseas Destinations by Mainland Chinese Online Users"

Professor Bob McKercher and Dr John Ap attended the CAUTHE 2011 National Conference hosted by the School of Management at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, on 8-11 February 2011. Professor McKercher presented a paper entitled "A Framework to Analyze Travel by Ethnic Minorities: A Concept Paper". Dr Ap presented a paper entitled "A Review and Preliminary Analysis of Tourism Impacts Research".

Dr David Jones was invited as a speaker on the topic "Contract Evaluation and Monitoring" at the European Meetings and Events Conference in Dusseldorf, Germany, on 13-15 February 2011. Dr Jones also presented a paper entitled "Mainland China: An Emerging Meetings Market".

Dr David Jones was invited as a speaker on the topic "How does Mainland China impact our assumptions on the future need for meeting space in Asia?" at the Korean Association of Tradeshow Studies in Seoul, South Korea, on 18 February 2011.

Professor Cathy Hsu visited Purdue University as a Distinguished Fellow of the Purdue University China Center and Purdue Tourism and Hospitality Research Center from 22 February to 1 March 2011. Professor Hsu was invited to speak on the topic "Understanding Chinese Visitors" at the Indiana Mayoral Roundtable on China on 25 February 2011 which attracted more than 70 mayors and economic development executives from across the state of Indiana. During her visit she also contributed to a seminar on "Outbound China Tourists" with faculty members and graduate students of the University.

Dr David Jones delivered a seminar entitled "MICE Industry: Asian Leading the Way" to a 50-member student delegation from Singapore's Republic Polytechnic on 2 March. Members of the delegation were also shown around the School's new premises.

Dr Jack Kivela was invited as keynote speaker on the topic "Culinary Tourists: Who is the Typical Culinary Tourist? Attitudes/Values/Preferences" at the European Culinary Tourism Conference in Vienna, Austria, on 3-4 March 2011.

Professor Kaye Chon and Professor Haiyan Song were the speakers at the first Institute of Hospitality (IoH) Seminar 2011, held in Hong Kong and organised by the IoH Hong Kong Branch, on 18 March 2011. Professor Chon talked about "General Trends in Tourism/Hospitality Industry in Asia Pacific" and Professor Song gave a presentation on "Tourist Satisfaction with Services in Hong Kong".