Biography

Sammy joined the University of Surrey as a PhD Researcher in July 2009. His PhD research proposes a fresh perspective to study the destination images of residents and tourists. His research interests and professional backgrounds span across several areas in destination marketing and management, trade marketing, as well as tourism research education. Sammy is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster as a supervisor of postgraduate level dissertations for international students

Having been educated in world leading universities for tourism and business management, previous work experience has given Sammy grounded operational and managerial exposure at a destination management office and in industry. Sammy has also developed tourism related products for which he has received awards and recognitions. Moreover, he founded the UK’s biggest tourism, hospitality and events career fair on campus. He has also performed several voluntary appointments at Surrey and beyond.

Sammy was born in Hong Kong and was educated at a Canadian school. After graduating from The University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor degree in Economics and Finance, he pursued a Master degree in Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Sammy is a keen traveler and has visited over 45 countries. His ambition is to explore at least one new country every year.

Research Interests

PhD research

Destination image studies have always been visitor-centric. Established on the foundation of earlier literature on product image, this research area has a history of strong customer focus. However, tourism is unlike any factory manufactured product. Tourism consumes the destination. It is a politics of claims on the meaning and use of spaces between the residents and the tourists. Although destination marketers have a tendency to market selective dimensions of a place in order to optimise the destination’s commercial status, decoding and re-encoding of a place’s marketing image actually takes place among the public. Therefore, successful implementation of a destination’s marketing image relies on engaging local stakeholders to generate a deliverable local image. It is essential to go beyond the conventional practice of destination image studies and to examine both the residents’ and the tourists’ destination images.

Supervisory team

Supervisor: Prof David Airey

Research project

Tourism labour market in Middle East and North Africa region, UNWTO THEMIS Foundation

Research interests

Destination image, DMO, tourism education, gay tourism

Publications

Conference Presentations and Paper Proceedings

Li, S. C. H. (2012, Jun). The Divergence of Destination Image between Residents and Tourists. Paper presented at the 1st Biannual Forum - Advances in Destination Management, Switzerland

Li, S. C. H. & Liang, S. W.-J. (2008, Jun). Pursing Hotel and Tourism Degree in Asia -The Case of Postgraduate Student in Hong Kong. Paper presented at the 7th Asia Pacific Forum for Graduate Student Research in Tourism, Malaysia.

Liang, S. W.-J., Li, S. C.-H., Qin, D. Y., Jang, D., & Law, R. (2007, May). Why studying aboard? - The case of overseas students in Hong Kong. Paper presented at the 5th Asia Pacific CHRIE & 13th Asia Pacific Tourism Association, Beijing, China.

Work in progress

Why studying tourism and hospitality research degree – The case of Hong Kong and the UK.

The authenticity issue of destination image.

Teaching

Undergraduate

Guest lecturing: International Tourism Destinations, Tourism Impacts

Postgraduate

Guest lecturing: Tourism Planning and Development
Supervising: MA dissertations