Smart Tourism

Xinhua GU now works as an associate professor in finance & business economics at the University of Macau. He obtained a PhD degree in financial economics from the University of Toronto, M.A. degrees in economics from Concordia University and Nanjing University, and a B.Sc. degree in math from Nanjing University. Dr. Gu’s past positions included: head and acting head of the Department of Finance & Business Economics in Business Administration Faculty at the University of Macau, director of the Planned Economy Section in the Department of Economics (now Economic College) at Nanjing University, and deputy secretary-general of Jiangsu Province Association for Quantitative Economics. Dr. Gu’s research interests are in tourism economics, financial economics, and development economics. He published three research books and numerous academic and policy articles in Chinese when working at Nanjing University. Some of his practical research projects had nation-wide influences on policy-making and economic-planning. Dr. Gu has also published lots of tourism, economics, and finance papers in mainstream international journals since joining the University of Macau.  His current pool of working papers in tourism taxation and portfolio finance is expected to generate more good publications in impactful or top journals.

Angus, C. C. Lam obtained his PhD in Structural Engineering of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of University of Alberta, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau. His major research field is experimental and numerical structural analysis of steel structures, masonry structures and composite materials. Those research results have been published in several international journals (such as: Journal of Structural Engineering (ASCE), Journal of Composites for Construction (ASCE), Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Engineering Structures) and international conferences. He is also appointed by the faculty/department for several services (such as: Academic Advisor of IAESTE Macau, Fellow of residential college SHEAC, Leader of CEE Program Accreditation Committee Structure Group, etc). For the service in Macau society, he is appointed by the Chief Executive of Macau as a member of Macau SAR Culture Heritage Committee (2013-2016) and vice-chair of Vice-chairman of Macau SAR Transport Consultative Committee (2021-2023). Currently, he is the Members of the Supervisory Board of The Macau Institution of Engineers (AEM); Council Member of the Society of Metal Structures of Macau (MSMS); Council Member of the Smart City Alliance Associate of Macau (SCAAM); Council Member of the Society of Traditional Architecture and Member of the Smart Tourism Research Team of Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management of University of Macau.

Dr. Ching is currently Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at Faculty of Education in University of Macau. He received a PhD in Education from University of Oxford, with a specialization in Psychology and Education. Over the years, Dr. Ching has strived to weave theories from multiple psychological disciplines (developmental, social, and educational) and use empirical research to address theoretical and practical questions related to psychology and education. In Faculty of Education, he is committed to studying the cognitive aspects of children’s learning, such as how they learn mathematics, and their educational implications for mathematical assessments and instructional strategies for young children. Dr. Ching believes that education should not only concern students’ performance in academic subjects, but it should also care about students’ psychological well-being. Thus, his second strand of research broadly pertains to healthy self-development and education in adolescents and young adults. Finally, the third line of research originates from his interest in an idea called “essentialism”, which has close connections with how children develop an understanding of a concept and entails far-reaching implications for intergroup relations. He has published his work with his research group as a first author predominantly in SSCI Q1 journals (selected publications could be found in https://fed.um.edu.mo/boby-ho-hong-ching/). In recognition of the potential impact and contribution of his research to academia, he received an international-level research award from Jean Piaget Society and was nominated to join the Editorial Board of “Learning and Instruction”, a flagship journal in the field of educational psychology and education. Recently, Dr. Ching has joined the Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management in University of Macau and he endeavors to use his knowledge in psychology to conduct research and understand virtual reality in smart tourism in particular.

Dr. Ho Ying is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Macau. She is the Programme Director of the Master of Business Administration Programme (MBA). She obtained her PhD. at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include consumer behavior, service marketing, cross-cultural marketing, and hospitality marketing. She has published in journals such as International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Journal of Consumer Marketing.