In the digitalization of business and digital commercialization as a distinctive feature of the digital …

At the advent of the digital economy with business digitization and digital commercialization as distinctive features, the hotel service industry – especially high-end hotels – has seized the opportunity to continuously carry out intelligent, digital and intelligent transformation, and digital hotels have become an important direction for the future development of hospitality Digital hotels have become an important direction for the future development of the hospitality industry.

As a tourism industry, hotel hospitality is pivotal in the economic development of Macau. According to official statistics, as only 310,000 square kilometers of Macau, more than 43 four-star hotels, including 10 five-star luxury class, five-star class 25, many by the world’s leading hotel management, with so many and intensive high-end hotels in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and the Greater Bay Area is second to none. With the strong support of the Macau SAR Government, the hotel and hospitality industry in Macau is actively seizing the development opportunities brought by digital technology, especially by taking advantage of the window period (2019-2022) for tourism and travel business caused by the new coronavirus epidemic, and exploring various paths to transform Macau’s tourism and hotel and hospitality industry: optimizing services, reducing costs and promoting recovery by digitization in the short term, and realizing the country’s “World Tourism and Hospitality Industry” by high-level digital development in the long term. In the long term, we will realize the strategic requirement of “World Tourism and Leisure Center (One Center)”.

It is a rare consensus between the Macau government and the industry that the tourism and hotel hospitality industry is moving towards intelligence, i.e. using smart technologies to facilitate smart perception and easy access to various tourism and hotel hospitality information, while optimizing hospitality services and innovating customer experience through digital technologies. For example, under the guidance of the Macau government, several large resort hotels have implemented the “Digital Hotel” project to accelerate the application of new technologies such as mobile Internet, 5G and AI around the service scenarios before, during and after the hotel stay, so as to create a more convenient, comfortable and healthy online and offline guest experience, as well as to create more links to consumers and staff through business digitization. Through digitization of business, the hotel will create more services and management scenarios that link consumers and employees, and use data to drive the hotel to improve quality and increase efficiency. For example, MGM has focused its digitalization on a new convenient and fast “one-click check-in” experience, diversified and visualized hotel personalized services (e.g. MGM room service app), intelligent reservation by voice, intelligent inbound and outbound systems, smart marketing (e.g. Interactive Cloud) and member-centered service channels to open up all scenes of online and offline services. GEG’s digital optimization has been implemented in the following areas In December 2022, six of Macau’s major integrated entertainment companies were granted the right to operate gaming for the next ten years, and a key direction for their future development is to expand non-gaming activities, including conventions and exhibitions, entertainment shows, sports events, arts and culture, health and wellness, and themed entertainment. They plan to invest more than MOP100 billion in ten areas, including conventions and exhibitions, entertainment shows, sports events, arts and culture, health and wellness, and thematic entertainment, and many hotels under these enterprises will certainly play an important role. It is expected that the hospitality industry in Macau will enhance its international image and core competitiveness through deepening digitalization.

Whether many world-famous hotels in Macau can successfully achieve sustainable development through digital transformation and create an exemplary effect in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and the Greater Bay Area, there is an urgent need to cultivate middle and senior talents with cross-cultural literacy and digital business hotel management. It is against this background that the School of Innovation and Technology (S.I.T.I.) has established the Master of Hospitality Management in Digital Hospitality Program, with the aim of responding to the demand for digital hotel and hospitality management professionals in the digital economy in Macau and the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau with a proactive and innovative approach. It is also hoped that this program will promote the academic development of digital hospitality management.

• Course Locator

This program is designed to “develop innovative management personnel with cross-cultural literacy and expertise in smart tourism and digital hotel management”.

• Course Features

This course highlights the following four features.

1. Integration of academic disciplines: Focusing on the practical characteristics and development rules of digital hotel management, we integrate the relevant knowledge of Internet/Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and virtual technology application, hotel hospitality, environmental design and other fields into each part of the teaching with an interdisciplinary perspective.
2. Experiential Learning: This program will provide students with an indispensable hands-on experience through the Academy’s unique experiential learning platform in Australia’s leading high-end hotels and other partners (especially under the SJM Group).
3. Faculty expertise: Among the six faculty members, three are experts in computer and data science, two are well versed in the field of digital hospitality management and have successful experience in original application development, and one is an expert in leisure environment design, all of whom hold relevant R&D topics and encourage students to join.
4. Cross-border and cross-national: This course fully exploits the great advantages of “one country, two systems”in Macau, and integrates teaching into the digital business environment of Macau’s “one center”and the Greater Bay Area, reflecting the distinctive cross-cultural characteristics.

• Course Objectives

Develop innovative management personnel with cross-cultural literacy and expertise in digital hotel hospitality management, etc.

After graduation, students of this programme can join the management and research of tourism, hotel and cultural industries in Macau, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and the Greater Bay Area in the related digital transformation. They can work in Macau, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and the Greater Bay Area in the field of innovation management in tourism, hotel and cultural industries. They can join Macau, the Greater Bay Area and Mainland enterprises operating in tourism, hospitality and cultural industries in the “Belt and Road” destination countries and regions, and assist or directly take charge of the management and research of the relevant digital transformation. They can set up or join business consulting organizations in tourism, hotel and cultural industries in Macau, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau and the Greater Bay Area to engage in research and consulting work related to digital transformation and digital business development.

• Admission Requirements

Those who have a bachelor’s degree and pass the entrance examination for master’s degree organized by the School of Innovation, are eligible to apply for admission with specialization in computer, data science, artificial intelligence, hotel management, business administration, tourism management, design, etc., and priority will be given to those working in tourism, hotel, cultural industry and other business organizations and government related organizations in Australia.

• Graduation Requirements

Each student must complete a total of 36 credits (2 required foundation subjects, 4 required major subjects, 3 elective subjects and an original project report or academic thesis) within the study period (2-3 academic years) and pass the course before applying for graduation; each student who has completed all the requirements of the degree program within the study period and passed the course will be awarded a Master’s degree in “Smart Tourism and Digital Hospitality Management” by the College’s Academic and Teaching Committee. Each student will be awarded a Master’s degree in “Smart Tourism and Digital Hospitality Management” from the School of Innovation.