On May 29, SIT and the Institute of Tourism Studies jointly established “China-Europe Tourism and Gastronomy Cultural Exchange Center” in Luqa, Republic of Malta. The plaque-unveiling ceremony was held on ITS’s campus with generous support from the Chinese Embassy to Malta, the Prime Minister’s office of Republic of Malta, Ministry of Tourism and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Republic of Malta, gathering Chinese and European academics, industry professionals and main relevant representatives. This ceremony was covered by Xinhua News Agency, fully demonstrating SIT’s active exploration for opening-up in vocational education and increasing SIT’s international influence.
At the inaugural ceremony, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy to Malta Peng Yijun said that food and tourism are languages across national borders and ties of mutual learning between civilizations. The center employs a new cooperation model of “culture+ education + business”, an innovatively designed three-in-one model that symbolizes entry of China-Malta cultural and tourism cooperation into a new stage. He expected the center to become a bridge of people-to-people bond, create a window to industry-academia integration and grow fruits of pragmatic cooperation.
Ian Borg, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism of Malta, delivered a speech via video, saying that the establishment of the center will create a new platform and new opportunities for cooperation between Malta and China in tourism service industry. The Maltese side is fully confident in cooperation between the two sides on tourism education, willing to continue serving as a bridge between different cultures and play a positive role in enhancing educational and cultural exchanges between Europe and China.
SIT President Kang Nian said the center was established exactly with gastronomy as the ties to erect a bridge of cultural dialogue between China and the West, expecting to drive the integration between tradition and modernity and make gastronomy the common language for mankind. He expected the center to drive ongoing exchanges as a platform such as reciprocal visits of teachers and students, skill presentation and academic discussion, so as to allow Chinese and Western food cultures to burst forth new sparks in mutual learning efforts.
ITS President Pierre Fenech said that tourism and gastronomy are the most culturally appealing way of expression, as they can tell stories beyond languages, gather peoples together and erect a bridge of understanding and communication. He pointed out that the establishment of the center will inject new driving forces into academic exchange, skill innovation and cultural communication between China and Europe.
The delegation also held a work meeting with President Pierre and representatives of the international office of ITS during its stay in Malta, discussing in depth about future cooperation plans. Both sides agreed that there is a need to fully exploit the role of the exchange center as a platform to promote ongoing exchanges between teachers and students of the two schools, better innovate in the forms of cultural exchange and create a first-class brand of educational and cultural exchanges. In terms of teacher-student exchanges, both sides agreed to further expand the sphere of cooperation on the basis of the existing 2+2 top-up program by adding joint top-up training programs for more specialties. President Pierre plans to visit China in this July, when both schools will sign program expansion cooperation agreements.
As a pacesetting institution in China’s tourism vocational education sector, SIT will establish a bridge of deep exchanges and cooperation between China and Europe on tourism and food culture through this whole-new platform, actively respond to the national “Belt and Road” initiative, and drive the “vocational education going global” strategy to march towards new heights with internationalization of vocational education as the enabler.
By courtesy of the International Exchange Center and the School of Hotel Management and Culinary Arts