CQU's Associate Professor Gayle Jennings was an invited guest at the 25th gala anniversary dinner of Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel and Tourism Management.

More than 700 people attended the dinner, which was held at the Convention Hall of the Hong Kong Conference and Convention Centre.

As a result of the dinner, more than HK$1.5 million was raised for the School of Hotel and Tourism Management.

The Chair Professor and Head of the School, Professor Kaye Chon commented in the School’s magazine, 'Horizons HTM', that: “For us to assume global leadership ... there must be a strong partnership between and among four stakeholders, namely the industry, students, university support and strong academic staff.”.

Among the guests were a number of high profile international tourism and hospitality professors including Professor Jafar Jafari, Editor of 'Annals of Tourism', and Professor Charles Goeldner, former Editor of the 'Journal of Travel Research'.

Professor Goldner was a Visiting Professor at Central Queensland University in 1998 and was an important international advisor in the launch of the then Bachelor of Tourism program at CQU.

Associate Professor Les Killion, School of Marketing and Tourism at CQU, also has links with the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, the HKPU.

Such linkages are important for benchmarking courses and programs and generating research synergies as well as collaborations.

Associate Professor Killion has maintained contact with Dr John Ap, a Faculty member since 1992 of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management.

Associate Professor Killion had previously taught Dr Ap, when Dr Ap was completing his Postgraduate Diploma in Recreation Planning at Canberra University.

Associate Professor Killion and Dr Ap have continued their contact with a view to conducting comparative research between the Hong Kong, SAR China and the Australian context.

Photo (left to right): Jacqui Goeldner, Professor Charles Goeldner and Associate Professor Gayle Jennings at the gala.