August 9, 2010 - Professor Haiyan Song, Chair Professor of Tourism and Associate Director of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), has recently been honoured by the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (I-CHRIE) with the John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award.

The Award was presented to Professor Song by Professor Anna Mattila, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research at the 2010 I-CHRIE Annual Summer Conference and Marketplace held in Puerto Rico from 28 to 31 July 2010.

The John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award recognizes an I-CHRIE member for lifetime contributions to outstanding scholarship and research in hospitality and tourism. It is given to a distinguished I-CHRIE member who has demonstrated high standards in the systematic and objective analysis of data that has led to the development of principles or theories resulting in a significant contribution to the body of knowledge.

Prof Haiyan Song was presented the John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award by Prof Anna Mattila, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, who received the same award in 2006.

Professor Kaye Chon, Chair Professor and Director of SHTM, said, �Professor Song has demonstrated leadership in his specialized field of study and we are very proud of his achievement. The Award further cements Professor Song�s status as the established authority in his chosen area of research.� PolyU is the only university in the world where three serving faculty members have received this prestigious award: Professor Kaye Chon, Professor Cathy Hsu, and now Professor Song. 

Professor Song has a background in economics. His main research areas include tourism economics, tourism impact assessment, tourism project appraisal, and tourism demand modelling and forecasting. He was educated in both the Chinese mainland and the UK and has extensive research and consultancy experience in foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, regional and local tourism planning and competition issues in China�s tourism sector. Over the years he has been involved in a number of projects related to tourism demand analysis and forecasting in Hong Kong, Macau, and other Asian countries. 

Professor Song�s work on tourism forecasting methodologies has been published in journals such as the Journal of Applied Econometrics, the Journal of Transport and Economic Policy, Annals of Tourism Research, the Journal of Travel Research, the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Tourism Economics and the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing. He has published more than 80 refereed journal articles, over 60 refereed conference papers and eight books. His two co-authored books on tourism forecasting have been well received by researchers and practitioners around the world.

An eminent scholar in his field, Professor Song is a member of I-CHRIE, the International Association of Tourism Economics, the Chinese Economic Association in the UK, the Travel and Tourism Research Association and Asia Pacific Tourism Association. He was recently elected as Director of International Institute of Forecasters. Professor Song is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of China Tourism Research and Co-Editor of the Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies.

Professor Song taught at the Glasgow Caledonian University, the University of Abertay Dundee and University of Surrey in the UK before joining SHTM in August 2004.