The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the PATA in collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Guilin Municipal Government have organised the 6th UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook in Guilin, China from October 11-13, 2012

Overarched with the theme of collaboration and partnership, this 6th UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook aims at providing a platform for government offices, NGOs, industry practitioners and academics to share their perspectives, research findings, and practices on collaboration and partnerships in tourism.

The two-day Conference will be divided into two generic sessions:

The technical session (on the first day) aims at a small audience. This session will provide practitioners and academics with a forum to exchange views and perspectives on collaboration and partnerships in tourism.  Examples and/or best practices will be exchanged with experiences from different sectors extracted from a selected number of destinations and/or source markets. The technical session will encompass both public and private sector perspectives to look at collaboration and partnerships in tourism with an aim of generating ideas.

The plenary session (on the second day) is open to a broad audience. This session, to be conducted by renowned international speakers from the tourism sectors, will be devoted to consensus building and knowledge synthesis in pertinence to collaboration and partnership in tourism. The role of education and research in fostering partnership, nurturing innovation and transferring knowledge will also be discussed.

The Forum is aimed at participants working in the following areas:

* Senior management officials from National Tourism Administrations and National Tourism Organisations
* Research officials from National Tourism Administrations and National Tourism Organisations
* Practitioners from tourism industries (tour operators, hotels, transport services, telecommunications, financial bodies, consultancy firms, etc.)
* Academics from research institutes and universities