CONFERENCE: The Department of Tourism Management at Shih Chien University, Taiwan, is pleased to announce Cultural Tourism, Tourist Culture: In-Depth Travel Conference to be held at Kaoshiung Campus, 23-25 May 2003. The conference seeks to cultivate an international and interdisciplinary forum for scholars, private/public sectors, and policy-makers interested in all facets of cultural tourism and tourist culture. With radical socio-economic changes in Taiwan, issues of culture and tourism have shifted from cultural diplomacy to cultural tourism - a rising field with the potential to rescue the current downswing of the national economy and the bleakness of cultural industry in this country. Although packaging and consuming cultural tourism have provoked controversies, statistics continue to inform authorities about a global market that appears to open up new opportunities for revitalizing economic growth and sharing the cultural heritage, in terms of jobs, income and self-pride. To advance sustainable tourism and in-depth travel, Shih Chien University recognizes an urgent need to facilitate and, if possible, to integrate cross-disciplinary exchanges among researchers, tourist sectors and community organizers, as well as administrators associated with a wide range of fields including museum exhibitions, performance and festivals, heritage conservation, folk fairs, tourist production, local historiography, hostel service, and theme-park management, etc.

... Comment