Sept 2025 Entry
What's New
More than 1,450 students are enrolled in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM). With more than 80 faculty members with diverse cultural backgrounds, the School ranks among the top hotel and tourism schools in the world, exemplifying our motto of Leading Hospitality and Tourism. Our internationally renowned faculty creates a multicultural environment in which students benefit from a range of innovative teaching and learning techniques.
The success of a research institution is largely due to its provision and training of young scholars. To provide leadership in developing future scholars in hospitality and tourism management, the SHTM offers research programmes leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree. The critical mass of globally recognised researchers, together with the attractive stipend for research students and the unique “East meets West” environment, make our highly competitive research programmes very successful. Many of our PhD graduates are now serving as faculty members in universities worldwide.
Research students work on projects under the supervision of experienced faculty members and take advanced subjects in preparation for a major piece of research in a focused area of hospitality and tourism.
With an international and multicultural environment, friendly staff and valuable opportunities for peer relationships, the SHTM prepares students for leadership positions in their chosen careers.
Hotel ICON and Tomorrow’s Guestrooms
Hotel ICON is the first teaching and research hotel of its kind in the world to completely integrate teaching, learning and research in a full-service environment. The establishment of Hotel ICON enhances the leadership role of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) in hospitality research. Research projects with different foci have already been implemented in the hotel. Three dedicated guestrooms –“Tomorrow’s Guestrooms” – serve as an exceptional platform to innovate, develop and showcase new technologies, hotel designs and business concepts in hotel management for the advancement of the entire industry.
Che-woo Lui Hotel & Tourism Resource Centre
The Che-woo Lui Hotel and Tourism Resource Centre supports the research, teaching and learning functions of the SHTM. It holds a comprehensive range of reference materials in hotel and tourism management, including books, journals, magazines, statistical reports and conference proceedings. More than 150 well-known international journal titles from the fields of hospitality, tourism and food science are stocked. The Centre is equipped with top-class facilities for student group projects and seminars.
Tan Siu Lin Innovation Hub
With the generous support of the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, the Tan Siu Lin Innovation Hub established by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of PolyU was officially opened in 2022. Committed to providing students with an inspirational and flexible learning environment conducive to creativity and innovation, the Tan Siu Lin Innovation Hub is one of the major facilities of the SHTM. The new facility ensures that SHTM students will learn the latest technologies and software used in our industry so as to nurture them to become global-minded leaders in the digital age.
Vinoteca Lab
With Hong Kong fast becoming a wine hub in Asia, the Vinoteca Lab serves as a valuable facility to enhance food and beverage education, and prepare students for the demands of our city’s rapidly increasing wine focus. The Lab hosts a variety of classes including wine appreciation, food and wine pairing, creative mixology and coffee art. Students are taught a range of topics, from basic wine fundamentals to advanced regional and international wine knowledge and specialist skills in the food and beverage industry.
Note to applicants
The School will give priority to proposed research proposals related to the following themes:
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Smart tourism (including artificial intelligence, robotics, technology innovation, branding, marketing, experience management, and customer engagement)
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Performance measurement and management (including financial and revenue management and measurement, operational management, service management, and event management)
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Tourism futures and forecasting (including demand forecasting and emerging products and markets)
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Policy and planning (including public policy, tourism planning and development)
Programme-specific requirements
1. To be considered for the PhD programme, applicants must meet the following entrance requirements:
- An MPhil or equivalent (a research postgraduate degree with a dissertation as an award requirement) and a Bachelor’s degree (at least one degree in hospitality and tourism management or a closely related field), and at least two years of work experience including a minimum of one year industry/relevant experience.
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Candidates without the prescribed educational and industry backgrounds may be admitted on an exceptional basis. Such students will have to obtain relevant industry experience prior to enrolment or during the first year of enrolment, and undertake extra coursework as determined by the supervisor and/or School Research Committee.
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Candidates whose Master's degrees did not include thesis/dissertation research components must provide other documented evidence of previous scholarly research experience.
2. Applicants who do not have a degree for which English was the language of instruction at a recognised university must provide one of the following as proof of language proficiency:
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A minimum score of 92 in internet-based test (with a writing score of 23 or above) in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL); or
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A Band Score of at least 6.5 overall (with a score for the writing component at 6.0 or above) in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
All English language test scores are considered valid for two years after the date of the test. Applicants may be required to attend interviews or take tests to further demonstrate their language proficiency.
Application documents
To prepare an application, applicants should read the information on the programme webpage.
Applicants must submit the required application documents as detailed in "Supporting Documents" below and on SHTM's website. In particular, admission to the PhD programme is highly competitive and depends largely on the quality and relevance of the thesis/dissertation research proposal, which highlights the intended research direction. This proposal should be between 1,200 and 1,800 words in length (excluding references), and should use the standard form (download here) with the structure: Project Title, Project Objectives (Purpose of the proposed investigation), Scope and Background of Research (Identify key issues/problems to be addressed), Conceptual Framework, Research Methodology, and Project Significance and Value.
Programme Structure
All 3-year PhD students must earn a minimum of 18 credits before submitting their theses for examination. For more details, please visit SHTM's website.
