The Macao University of Tourism (UTM) is honoured to announce that Dr Wu Chi Wai (Don), a lecturer at the university, has been awarded the 9th Outstanding Achievement Award in Scientific Research (Humanities and Social Sciences) in the category of Youth Achievement Award by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. This recognition was granted for the research paper he led, “Forecasting Tourist Daily Arrivals with a Hybrid SARIMA–LSTM Approach.” Regarded as one of the most prestigious academic accolades in China’s humanities and social sciences fields, the award celebrates exceptional contributions to research innovation by young scholars under the age of 40.
Dr. Wu, serving as both the first author and corresponding author of the research paper, collaborated with a research team led by Professor He Kaijian (now affiliated with the College of Tourism at Hunan Normal University) and Professor Geoffrey Tso from the Department of Management Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong. Together, they proposed a hybrid forecasting method that integrates the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence technology, the research significantly improves the accuracy of daily tourist arrival predictions for destinations. This innovation provides a scientific foundation for sustainable tourism development, dynamic resource allocation, and policy formulation, demonstrating both academic value and practical significance.
Dr. Wu’s award reflects the university’s commitment to fostering interdisciplinary integration of cutting-edge technologies with tourism studies, supporting Macao’s vision to become a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.” This national-level recognition not only affirms the university’s academic prowess but also strengthens Macao’s integration into China’s innovation ecosystem.
About Macao University of Tourism
As a leading tourism education and research institution in the Asia-Pacific region, Macao University of Tourism is dedicated to cultivating professionals in culture, tourism and hospitality fields. With innovation-driven research at its core, the university actively promotes industry-academia-research collaboration to advance Macao’s development as the “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.”
