From April 15th to 16th, 2018, the China-ASEAN Tourism Education Alliance Annual Assembly 2018 and the 2nd China-ASEAN Tourism Education Cooperation Forum was held at Guilin Tourism University. Vice President Yao Yanbo attended the annual meeting on behalf of the College and hosted a special seminar.

The ASEAN-China Centre, the Guangxi Tourism Administration, and 19 universities and enterprises of the first batch of China-ASEAN Tourism Education Alliance members, as well as brother universities, participated in the annual meeting. The meeting discussed six aspects of the Alliance Articles, including the nature, purpose and tasks, decision-making and organization forms, joining and withdrawing mechanisms, and the rights and obligations of the members, and the Alliance constitution was passed. The meeting also introduced to the guests the alliance members’ work progress in 2017 and discussed the work plan for 2018. In 2018, the alliance will concentrate on four aspects: high-level visits, academic exchanges, cooperative education, and social services.

The conference’s keynote speech focused on the “Mission of China-ASEAN Tourism Education Alliance” and delivered a special seminar on three topics: “China-ASEAN Tourism Education Development Status and Prospects”, “the Interactive Cooperation between China-ASEAN Tourism Industry and Tourism Education”, and “the Construction of the China-ASEAN Tourism Education Community under the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’”. Prof. Yao Yanbo was invited to host the first special seminar. He discussed in depth the issues with leaders of Huaqiao University of China, Taylor's University of Malaysia, Indonesian Hope Light Tourism College and Myanmar National Business School.