As part of the celebration of M.U.S.T.’s 22nd Anniversary, the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management (FHTM) held the fifth lecture on “Seminars by Masters from Tourism Industry” on April 22, 2022, via Zoom. Ms. Jessica Feng, Senior Consultant Meituan Lodging was invited as the guest speaker and provided an insightful lecture entitled “Following the Trend – New Characteristics of Tourism Development”. Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM, Program Directors Dr. Feng Yan, Dr. Wong Weng Chou, and more than 200 teachers and students attended the seminar.
Guest Speaker, FHTM Teachers and Students’ Group Photo
On behalf of all the faculty and students of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM extended a warm welcome to Ms. Jessica Feng. As the leading e-commerce platform for lifestyle services in China, Meituan is a leading provider of technology to connect consumers and merchants, and its services cover many related fields such as catering, hotel, and tourism. It was hoped that students would cherish this rare opportunity to learn and have a better understanding of the cutting-edge information provided, to broaden their thinking about the development of the hospitality and tourism industry.
Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM Delivered a Speech
At the lecture, Ms. Jessica Feng firstly introduced the development strategy, business achievements, and technological innovations of Meituan to the students in detail. Ms. Feng also pointed out the challenges and key-recovery points faced by the hotel industry after the epidemic through which she introduced the concept of the "VUCA era", emphasizing the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of the current situation in the hospitality industry, and put forward the new requirements in response to the challenges.
Finally, Ms. Feng introduced the new features and trends of China's tourism development, drawing on a number of data such as the 2022 New Year's Day travel situation and the 2022 Spring Festival holiday travel data to show an increase in the proportion of "localized" travel local tourism/local traveling by residents. At the same time, the presentation further introduced a case study of Beijing entitled "Localization Characteristics by Six Elements of Tourism" to deepen the understanding of multiple parties.
Ms. Jessica Feng Gave a Lecture
At the end of the presentation, students interacted with Ms. Feng in the Q&A session. Ms. Feng has spared no effort to help them. Through this lecture, students had a deeper understanding of the new features and trends of the future development of the tourism industry under the general environment of the epidemic and the importance of following the trend.
Ms. Jessica Feng is currently the senior advisor of Meituan Lodging, graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a master's degree in Science in Hotel and Tourism Management, with more than 20 years of experience in the relevant industry as a service provider and manager, and has been hired to take on several positions such as Senior Vice President of Brand Wisdom Business Division, Beijing Joint Wisdom Information Technology Co., Ltd.; Executive Deputy General Manager, Hotel Business Department, Shanghai JOYING E-Commerce Co., Ltd.; Vice General Manager of Hotel Business Department and Shanghai Branch of mangocity.com; Director and Chief Representative of Shanghai Branch, Hotel Business Department, Aoyou.com; Director of Hotel Business Department, eLong Inc; and the Founder of Baideqin Travel Consultants Limited.
