In the last two years alone, a number of IFTM students have focused their final year capstone research project on investigating different aspects of the cultural and creative industries. Many of which have been presented in the annual Tourism Education Student Summit event (TEd Summit) and subsequently published within the respective e-Proceedings (ISSN 2518-4784, 2020 & 2021). The studies they conducted ranged in scope from entertainment such as film and pop culture to art as a decorative aesthetic.
Two such studies under the supervision of Dr. Fernando Lourenço have focused on the film industry. One, with the support of the Macau Motion Picture Industry Association (Wang, 2021 in publication), explores how policies of ten countries stimulate their respective film industries, which in turn indirectly drive other industries such as tourism. The study found that global cinema revenue reported as $45.1 billion in 2019 dropped by two-thirds in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Another case study (Leung, 2021 unpublished thesis) investigates how a team of local film enthusiasts (Companhia de Produção de Entretenimento e Cultura In Limitada), deliver quality services to the public and practitioners from film-related industries by taking an active role in cinema operations as well as developing and improving many schemes to support the film industry.
Two other interesting studies supervised by Dr. Virginia Lau, investigated different aspects of the creative industry. The first looks at how Korean pop culture motivates travel behavior of fans through the lens of self-expansion theory (Man, 2021 in publication). This study suggests that a national policy which supports media and entertainment, has the capacity to invigorate the national economy through strengthening the cultural and creative industries and developing them as an international export. The second study focuses on how artistic aesthetics enhance hotel brand image (Lei, 2020). The findings of this study explore how artistic features within a hotel setting become the focal point for visitors to photograph and post on social media platforms in association with their travel experience; thus, eliciting a clearer understanding of how artistic aesthetics could be considered an asset in a hotel’s marketing strategy, especially amidst a culture where social media postings garner increasing influence. In regards to cultural aspects of the industry, Lei (2020) investigated factors involved in the decision making process for the ‘revitalization’ of Macau’s cultural heritage sites. This study was conducted under the supervision of Mr. Philip Chan.
In all of the above mentioned studies, students from different programmes of study within the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) chose to focus on exploring the potential of the cultural and creative industries to expand and enhance not only their knowledge, but to consider its valuable connection within their own field and perhaps its implication toward their future career direction. As Macao positions itself as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, it is beneficial to explore and implement a wider range of performance measures to monitor how the cultural and creative industry can directly and indirectly support the tourism industry.