An assessment on the opportunities to develop ecotourism in Hong Kong

Congress Theme: Hospitality: The Interaction with LandHong Kong is famous for its dense, highrise-populated urban fabric. When tourists consider visiting Hong Kong, most would think of Hong Kong as a “city-break” destination rather than a place to explore the natural and cultural landscapes. Nevertheless, little that people may know of, Hong Kong’s urban area only covers about 30% of its land area, the rest of the 70% is in fact covered with various types of landscapes. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the tremendous opportunities for Hong Kong to develop its ecotourism in its rural areas– an alternative operation of tourism that encourages more “interaction with the land” to induce a deeper understanding of Hong Kong’s local traditional culture and its strategic ecological networks. The “interaction with the land” via the operation of ecotourism in Hong Kong can be explored in two spectrums. First, assessment will be made to a few case studies of Hong Kong’s rural landscapes, evaluating whether these areas have the varieties of landscapes and ecology types for travellers to explore. The choices of case studies are mostly the working landscapes in Hong Kong - traditionally there are a lot of agricultural and aquacultural activities in the rural areas, together with the village settlements, creating a lot of interesting cultural landscapes. Second, evaluations will be made in discussing whether the tourism and land development policies in Hong Kong are helpful in guiding and nurturing the growth of ecotourism here at all. “Interaction with the land” incorporates more than just interacting with the physicality of the landscape. It induces a “refreshment” or an evaluation on the mindset, triggering new perspectives of seeing things, or even a new interpretation of man’s relationship with nature. Not only it benefits the tourists that come to visit the various types of landscapes, but it also benefits the local residents who host the guests. The operation process of ecotourism also helps educate the locals on environmental awareness. Therefore, it is an industry worth investigating.postprin

What\u27s wrong with this tree? : Integrating effective communication with tree care instruction

An instructional development project using an exhibit illustrating improper tree care is integrated with the model of the events of instruction (Gagne & Briggs, 1979) and with the model of the stages of the innovation-decision process (Rogers, 1983). These two models are correlated and related to the field of arboriculture. An arborist using these correlated models in conjunction with the What\u27s Wrong With This Tree exhibit will be able to provide effective and efficient instruction on the topic of proper tree care

Leveraging Online Learning to Promote Systems Thinking for Sustainable Food Systems Training in Dietetics Education

Educating and training a multisectoral food systems workforce is a critical part of developing sustainable, resilient, and healthy food and water systems. This paper shares perspectives from a working group of educators, learners, and food systems subject matter experts that collaborated over the course of a year to develop, pilot test, and evaluate two interactive webinar series with a multi-site cohort of dietetics interns and graduate students. The three-part webinar series format included a training webinar, a practice activity, and a synthesis webinar. In reflecting on the effectiveness of this format, we provide direct assessments of student learning from subject matter experts alongside indirect assessments from pre- and post-surveys fielded with learners. Learners who participated in an interactive webinar series demonstrated skills in several dimensions of systems thinking and gained confidence in food systems learning outcomes. Learners also shared valuable feedback on the opportunities and challenges of using online platforms for this experience. As online learning opportunities become more common, it will become increasingly important for educators to prioritize strategies that effectively equip students with the higher-order thinking skills, such as systems thinking, needed to address the complexities of sustainable food systems. The interactive webinar series format described here provides an opportunity to leverage didactic webinars in combination with interactive experiences that enable learners to deepen their knowledge through practice with peers and subject matter experts. Though this format was piloted within dietetics education programs, many of the lessons learned are transferable to other food systems educational contexts

Critical Dietetics and Sustainable Food Systems

In this chapter, we invite readers to consider a food system that is based on values where individual health, the health of the society (social system) and ecosystem health are of equal importance. With this as a lens, there is a clear need to move beyond the biosciences to consider transdisciplinary approaches as important for nutrition and Dietetic in today and tomorrow’s reality