PENANG, 4 Feb. 2013 – It is hoped that the International Conference on Tourism Development 2013 (ICTD 2013), organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) here today, be branded and becomes the reference point for tourism industry stakeholders worldwide.

Conference Chairman, Prof. Badaruddin Mohamed said that organising ICTD 2013 in its second year at international level was intended to be a platform to build a sustainable future for tourism and to remain competitive.

He said that the conference connects the academia and the industry with the aim of transferring knowledge from the campus to the community through the application results of research conducted.

“We sincerely hope that any research can be successfully implemented by the tourism industry and society.

“Until now the feedback of stakeholders has also indicated that ICTD has become part of the field for the application of knowledge sharing in which participant involvement has been increasing over the years," he said.

He added that there are also participants who are among tourism industry players who followed through this series of conferences, applied the views and ideas of best practices introduced by the academia to improve the industry," he said.

“We also include travel agencies, local authorities, small and medium enterprises in the conference so that they can get a clearer picture of how to sustain the tourism industry,” he said.

In the meantime, the two-day conference hopes to provide a discussion platform related to tourism strategies for building the future of a competitive tourism sector.

It also served to empower the knowledge of the participants comprising policy makers, industry players, scholars in tourism and other stakeholders to provide a structured and high impact development plan.

Three keynote speakers also shared their views during the conference and they were Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents President (MATTA), Dato’ Mohd. Khalid Harun, USM academic-cum-Director of the Global Centre for Archaeological Research, Prof. Dr. Mokhtar Saidin and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) academia, Prof. Dr. Amran Hamzah.

The conference was well attended by 120 participants from countries including Korea, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China, Kuwait, Jordan, Canada, and Hong Kong. - Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias / Photo: Mohd. Fairus Md. Isa / Translation: Yong Check Yoon