澳大新語 • 2022 UMAGAZINE 26 38 專題探討 • TOPIC INSIGHT to key areas such as tourism and education. As an international comprehensive public university in Macao, UM is committed to supporting Macao in its development into a smart tourism destination through research and education. The university has formed a Smart Tourism Research Team under the Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management (APAEM), aligning outstanding domestic and foreign scholars to conduct interdisciplinary research. With the assistance of various advanced technologies such as big data and the Internet of Things, Macao will be developed as a world centre of tourism and leisure to offer diverse tourism products and attract more high-quality tourists. Dedicated to interdisciplinary research, the Smart Tourism Research Team consists of 14 UM scholars in areas such as tourism, technology, education, and law. The team is led by Rob Law, University of Macau Development Foundation Chair Professor of Smart Tourism, deputy director of APAEM, and chair professor in the Faculty of Business Administration (FBA). In 2021, he was named the world’s most prolific researcher in tourism/hospitality by the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Prof Law’s publications have been cited more than 54,000 times. The Alper-Doger Scientific Index recognised him as one of the most influential scholars worldwide in 2022. Prof Law says that smart tourism is developed upon the basis of smart cities, leveraging technologies to enhance the efficiency of urban tourism operations to meet the different needs of tourists. The research team has launched several large-scale and longitudinal interdisciplinary projects. These projects include Advancing Tourist Destination Competitiveness via Leveraging User-Generated Data, by Prof Law and his overseas collaborators; A Custom Tour Itinerary Robot based on Deep Reinforcement Learning, by Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Associate Professor Wong Seng Fat and FBA Associate Professor Amy So Siu Yan; and Using Smart Technology to Develop Medical Tourism in Macao, by Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences Professor Hu Yuanjia in collaboration with Faculty of Health Sciences Associate Professor Chan Ging and FBA Associate Professor Chen Xiaoyun. Through these projects, the scholars aim to explore the future of smart tourism in Macao from different perspectives. Making the Industry More Competitive Smart tourism is an important driving force that propels the transformation of Macao into a smart city. In this regard, UM’s State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City can provide technical support for smart tourism research. According to Prof Law, technologies that can enhance visitors’ experiences before, during, and after their trips, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and 5G, can all be considered as smart tourism technologies. ‘However, no matter how much our technologies have evolved, the core value of tourism remains the same, says Prof Law. ‘It is always about creating a wonderful and unforgettable travelling experience for visitors. Among all elements, shopping, food, accommodation, and transport are linked together as a whole, a visitor’s experience will be affected if any of these elements falls below expectation.’ 苗莉教授 Prof Miao Li
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