Review: The guest lectures of Prof Markus Schuckert

Prof Dr. Markus Schuckert is director of and professor at the Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Administration (HRT) at the University of New Orleans. Before that role, he was professor at the School of Hotel & Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Markus Schuckert is a regular guest at international conferences as a moderator or keynote speaker. His teaching foci are qualitative research methods in the hotel and tourism context. He also researches on social interactions between travelers and residents, which results in a co-creation of experiences. Dr. Schuckert has longstanding experiences in sales management and marketing, IT management and market research at companies like Lufthansa, BMW or DPDHL.

In the seminar Innovation and Product Development in Tourism, Professor Markus Schuckert provided important insight into his presentation on „The Future of China Outbound Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities“. Thereby, Prof. Schuckert builds upon theories and concepts, but also on his personal experience as an international expert in Hongkong and the US. It became clear that doing business is a matter of cultural differences and commonalities, whereas tourism is a mediator between countries or even continents. In this regard, China Outbound Tourism is a driver for tourism development, which is based on the development of the economy and society in China. For the European destination, China Outbound tourism has witnessed an enormous growth before the Covid-19 Pandemic. In the light of the tourism recovery, Prof. Schuckert stressed the importance of understanding consumer behavior and the cultural background to develop products in tourism further.

In the course Theory and Strategy in Destination Management and Marketing, Prof. Markus Schuckert spoke about "New Perspectives for Strategic Destination Management". He started his lecture with general information on how destinations work and compared the European model with the American one. He then presented various models and theories on destination development and the different phases during typical destination growth. Prof. Schuckert concluded his session with an outlook on current issues and future developments related to strategic destination management, focusing on various impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on destinations, destination management organizations, and other stakeholders.

The digital international visiting professor program is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.