PhD candidate Fangli Hu travelled to China to accept the CTW Chinese Tourism Welcome Award and share her team\'s research into travel and health.
An inventive ECU research project investigating the relationship between health and travel continues to win global acclaim after taking out an international tourism award.
The China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) gave its CTW Chinese Tourism Welcome Award 2023 to ECU's Professor Wei Wang, Dr Jun Wen and PhD candidate Fangli Hu for their project, 'Healthy ageing: Proposing outbound tourism as a potential pathway to improve Chinese ageing populations'.
A collaboration between ECU's School of Business and Law and Centre for Precision Health, the project looks at how tourism relates to health, such as how holidays can impact mental health and wellbeing, and how the hospitality can and must cater to people with health conditions which usually keep them at home.
The latest accolade follows the project being the only non-European winner at the University of Barcelona's annual CETT Alimara Awards in March.
Since 2004, the CTW Chinese Tourism Welcome Award is presented to companies and organizations offering new initiatives to positively impact the Chinese tourism market.
COTRI director Professor Wolfgang Georg Arlt said the ECU project delivered this to stand out above other submissions in the eyes of the selection panel.
Ms Hu was on hand at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair to receive the award from Professor Arlt and Sun Yat-Sen University School of Tourism Management Dean, Professor Honggang Xu.
Ms Hu then delivered a presentation before and later sharing the research at Sun Yat-sen University by invitation.
She said it was a thrill and an honour to accept the award on behalf of the team.
"It also encourages us to continue exploring new initiatives that will have a positive impact on tourism and public health," Ms Hu said.
"Tourism and public health may seem like an unconventional pairing, but they are closely related and mutually beneficial.
"In addition to the important contribution of public health to tourism, such as controlling disease transmission, protecting destination environments and safeguarding the health and security of tourists and residents, tourism in turn could be a promising non-pharmacological intervention for disease prevention and treatment to promote public health through physical activity, social interaction and positive emotions."
