Highlights and Outlook for Sun Yat-sen University's Master of Tourism Administration (MTA) 2027!
As cultural and tourism integration moves toward greater depth, as digital technology reshapes the industry, and as building a strong tourism nation and advancing rural revitalization become defining tasks of our time, the cultural and tourism sector needs high-level applied talent with a sense of national mission, professional competence, and practical capabilities more than ever before.
As a leader in tourism education and research in China, the School of Tourism at Sun Yat-sen University has, since enrolling its first cohort of Master of Tourism Administration (MTA) students in 2011, always taken it as its mission to cultivate cultural and tourism professionals who are both morally sound and professionally capable, and has continued to supply the industry with high-level management talent.
The curriculum consists of four categories of courses: professional foundation courses, professional specialization courses, professional elective courses, and professional technical and practical courses. The required courses include core professional courses such as Tourism Industry and Economic Analysis, Tourism Destination Development and Management, Tourism Marketing, Service Operations Management, Tourism Planning and Strategy, Tourism Investment and Financial Management, Academic Norms and Thesis Writing, and Tourism Information Systems. In addition to dedicated internships at practice bases, the professional technical and practical courses also incorporate practical teaching and mobile classrooms across various specialized courses, with the aim of fully integrating theoretical learning with industry practice for professional master's students.
In 2027, the School of Tourism's MTA program will further upgrade and improve its curriculum system and teaching content on the basis of the existing training plan, fully implement digital-intelligent transformation, continue to advance multi-industry integration, focus on cultivating practical industry skills, and continuously raise the level of internationalization, opening the door to the future world of cultural tourism for you:
Highlight 1: Full Implementation of Digital-Intelligent Transformation
Relying on the platform of the Key Laboratory of Sustainable Tourism Intelligent Evaluation Technology of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as various practical teaching bases and digital practice platforms of partner enterprises, the program focuses on frontier fields of cultural tourism digitalization such as "digital management and intelligent decision-making of cultural tourism enterprises," "digital design and digital realization of cultural tourism products," and "innovation of new cultural tourism products and new business forms based on digital technology." It adds new courses including Digital Cultural Tourism Project Management, Digital Humanities, Digital Museums and Curation, and Artificial Intelligence and Creative Design, enriches on-site teaching sites at digital cultural tourism enterprises, and leads students into leading OTA platforms, smart scenic areas, digital cultural tourism technology companies, and artificial intelligence laboratories, so that they can learn about the practical application of digital technology in the cultural tourism field in real-world scenarios.
In collaboration with relevant teaching units such as the School of Artificial Intelligence at Sun Yat-sen University, the program invites university professors and experts in fields including tourism management, economic management, and artificial intelligence in China to regularly hold the "AI for Tourism" Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Tourism Academic Training Camp, providing systematic learning and training in technologies such as AI large models, AIGC, and intelligent agents, as well as in management science and social science research.
It also regularly holds the Digital Cultural Tourism Industry-University-Research Integration Forum, inviting leading figures and industry executives in the digital cultural tourism field into the classroom to share the latest practical cases of AI in areas such as scenic area operations, hotel revenue management, marketing and communication, and cultural tourism planning, enabling students to hone and improve their skills through hands-on practice.
Highlight 2: Continuously Advancing Multi-Industry Integration
Relying on its interdisciplinary strengths and strong industry connections, the School of Tourism promotes the integration of the cultural tourism industry with other industries in areas such as culture-commerce-tourism, culture-agriculture-tourism, industrial culture and tourism, and even transportation-tourism and wine-tourism integration, continuously enhancing students' cross-disciplinary research and innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities.
As the lead organizing institution of the National University Tourism Assistance Alliance, rural revitalization and culture-agriculture-tourism integration have always been one of the important directions in the School of Tourism's Master of Tourism Administration program. In the future, the school will continue to deepen rural practice in agriculture-culture-tourism, and further advance innovation in rural industry practice and operating models.
In terms of culture-commerce-tourism integration, with the National Smart Business District Innovation Center jointly established with the Grandview Group as the core platform, the program collaborates with leading commercial enterprises, commercial management authorities, and commercial marketing agencies to jointly advance research on culture-commerce-tourism integration and innovative industry practice.
Highlight 3: Focusing on Cultivating Practical Industry Skills
The content of the School of Tourism's MTA courses will further strengthen the cultivation of practical industry skills, with practice bases, mobile classrooms, and industry mentors serving as the three core means of building practical capabilities, all of which will be continuously reinforced. In the future, the School of Tourism will add a number of new cultural tourism practice bases, covering fields such as tourism destinations and scenic areas, cultural and museum venues, theater and performance, OTA and big data marketing, and artificial intelligence applications. A group of seasoned industry managers will enter the classroom to provide students with in-depth interpretations of cultural tourism cases and to participate in training stages such as professional master's thesis proposal, research guidance, and thesis defense. The school will lead students more often into the field and into enterprises to participate in hands-on training in cultural tourism projects, and mobile classrooms will become an essential component of most core professional courses.
At the same time, intensive practical teaching relying on practice bases is also a practical component that every student must participate in. Under the leadership of the course instructor, students will, through case material search and reading analysis, in-depth on-site investigation, on-site courses and seminars at the case site, and other methods, complete the design of a practical solution for a practice base project within one week, and conduct on-site presentation and discussion.
Highlight 4: Continuously Raising the Level of Internationalization
The program expands global perspectives on cultural tourism and provides diverse opportunities for international academic exchange and industry visits, offering access to global masterclasses. It organizes short-term overseas study tours, including cultural tourism study tours in Malaysia, wellness tourism study tours in Japan, and urban renewal and rural tourism study tours in Europe. Led by school professors, participants visit internationally renowned cultural tourism enterprises, destination management organizations, and World Heritage sites, and engage in in-depth exchanges with overseas counterparts. In addition, students may apply to participate in international academic conferences and industry forums hosted or co-organized by the school, engage in face-to-face exchanges with top experts from the global tourism academic and industry communities, and expand their international networks.
In 2027, the full-time International Master of Tourism Administration (IMTA) program, which recruits students from overseas, will also begin admissions. The international student body will further advance the internationalization of the MTA program.
