Prof Robin Gauld, of the Otago Business School, said the success of the conference, with numbers attending exceeding expectations, showed how respected University of Otago’s tourism department was.
More people had attended this year’s Council of Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education conference than any other in its 27-year history, Prof Gauld said.
"Arguably, the reason for that is because of the stellar international reputation that our tourism department has," he said.
Conference convener Dr Sebastian Filep said the conference, which started on Wednesday and finishes today, dealt with the important issues confronting the future of tourism, hospitality and events research and education.
Some of the global developments which will affect the future of tourism included the move towards autonomous vehicles, visitor congestion and destinations changing because of climate change.
"Knowing what will happen tomorrow has always fascinated humankind, whether they are short-term forecasts about international arrivals to a country, or scenarios about climate change," Dr Filep said.
The programme schedule contains 224 full and working papers with eight concurrent sessions and international delegates from New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Africa, United Kingdom and Europe, and North America.
