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5-7 July, 1999
Bandung, IndonesiaAtlas-Asia Inauguration Conference'Entrepreneurship and Education in Tourism'The Asia-Pacific region is the world's fastest growing tourist destination. Its share of international tourist arrivals increased from 3% in 1970 to 11.5% in 1991, and is expected to reach 18% in the year 2000. The travel and tourism industry in the area is expected to account for more export earnings than any other industry by the turn of the century. Recognition of these economic facts has led to mounting scholarly and professional interest in tourism in the region, with a proliferation of journals, scholarly associations, and tourism studies programmes.
The growth in tourism has to meet requirements of sustainability: tourism is supposed to raise both the national income and the people's standard of living, without degrading the natural environment and threatening the integrity of culture. This policy requires considerable investment in education and training for jobs in the tourism sector. Efforts to improve these areas have to focus not only on vocational training, but also on academic education, to provide the Asia-Pacific region with people who are able to conduct policy development and strategic management in tourism at the highest level.
It is against this background that the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS) established ATLAS ASIA to offer a forum for scholars involved in tourism research and education in the Asia-Pacific region. The ATLAS ASIA inauguration conference will be organized on July 5-7, 1999, in Bandung, Indonesia. This conference is a collaborative effort by: the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS); the Department of Leisure Studies of Tilburg University (Netherlands); Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, Netherlands); the Dutch Ministry of Education; the Centre for Research on Tourism, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) (Indonesia).
The conference focuses on the relationship between entrepreneurship and education in terms of tourism employment, tourism policy making, and tourism training and teaching, both vocational and academic. The purpose is to map the field of tourism education and to compare different educational practices and experiences in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, to explore the needs for education and training among large-scale and small-scale entrepreneurs, and to discuss opportunities for and threats to tourism employment and industry growth. A comparative perspective on Asian and European countries will be welcomed. Questions will be asked about the sustainability of tourism enterprises, both small and large, and their contribution to tourism development. And questions will be raised about what 'counts' as tourism knowledge and the ways in which scholars think about and structure tourism education.
The conference will feature sessions on:
- human resources for tourism development;
- tourism industry perspectives and employment opportunities;
- small-scale entrepreneurship and self-employment;
- tourism education.
Topics to be addressed during conference workshops include: public versus private tourism education; standards of competency and accreditation of tourism programmes; body of knowledge for tourism; advantages and disadvantages of tourism education; grass-roots education, local participation, and community development; education and training needs in the small-scale and medium-size tourism sector (e.g. handicraft production, accommodation sector, souvenir and food vending); the art of mediation: guide training courses; self-employed people in the tourism industry; 'front-line' workers in the tourism industry; subcontracting in the tourism industry; the gendered nature of labour relations in the tourism industry; labour mobility in the tourism industry; and the role of the government in tourism education and entrepreneurship.
The conference will be followed by a two-week `Summer University' on the theme of `Challenges in Tourism Management', aimed at professionals in Asian Tourism.
Call for papers
We welcome the submission of abstracts of papers for the workshop sessions of the conference. Abstracts submitted should clearly relate to the theme of the conference, and will be subject to review. If you are interested in giving a paper related to one or more of the themes of the conference, please submit an abstract (not more than 1 page A4) to the conference secretariat. The official language of the conference will be English. Your abstract should include the full title of the paper, as well as contact details of the (senior) author, including e-mail address if available. Abstracts should be submitted before April 15, 1999. Please submit your abstracts on paper and on disk in a standard word processing format (Word, WP). Abstracts can also be submitted via E-mail: c.h.bras@kub.nl.
For further information regarding the workshops, conference fee, registration, and hotel accommodation, please contact the conference secretariat:
ATLAS ASIA
Karin Bras
Department of Leisure Studies
Tilburg University
PO Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-13-4662191
Fax: +31-13-4662370
E-mail: c.h.bras@kub.nl
Updated conference information can also be found on the ATLAS homepage: http://www.atlas-euro.org. |