Group photo of the 3 students with their thesis content and language supervisors.
The graduation theses of Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) Year 4 students, Gabriela, Geng Jiayu, Raul Chang Monteiro and Yuna, Pan Yuan, were selected for inclusion in the 4th International Student Conference in Tourism Research (ISCONTOUR 2016) which will be held from 23 to 24 May 2016 at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria. ISCONTOUR 2016 is an international conference providing a platform where students and graduates of Bachelor and Master degree programmes can submit and present to the public their tourism-related research papers based on their approved BA- or MA-theses. Each accepted paper has undergone a thorough double-blind review process by a minimum of 3 members of the Research Programme Committee before being selected. IFT is proud that 3 of its undergraduate students received an invitation to participate in the event. With the start of the 2015/16 academic year, IFT’s Bachelor of Science daytime degree programmes have incorporated a capstone graduation requirement consisting of a research-based investigation of the current state of affairs within the Macao tourism industry to ensure that our graduating students have capacity, not only in practical operations but in analysing and understanding how to utilise currents trends in the industry. To date 132 undergraduate candidates in total have successfully completed this research component in the first semester of this academic year. IFT is the only higher education institution in Macao that includes this individual research component as a graduation requirement for all its Bachelor of Science undergraduate candidates. Established in 1995, the Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao (IFT) offers the most extensive selection of tourism and hospitality related bachelor degree programmes in Macao, and about twenty thousand participants attend its vocational and professional training courses annually. IFT collaborates with 97 universities and tourism organisations around the world, and builds strong links with 500 leading tourism and hospitality corporations to offer internship opportunities to its students. Being the first institution accredited by the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System for tourism education, IFT has the most bachelor degree programmes certified under the System of any tertiary education establishment worldwide. IFT has received the Medal of Merit in Tourism from the Macao SAR Government, and won twice the Gold Award in ‘Education and Training’ from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).