Michael Hitchcock poses beside an ancient tree in the Temple of Confucius during fieldwork for the Shandong Tourism Masterplan (2016)

Professor Michael Hitchcock was the UNWTO Cultural Heritage and Museums specialist for the Shandong Province Tourism Masterplan. The contract for the plan was awarded to UNWTO and the Masterplan was accepted by Shandong Province in late 2016. In order to prepare his part of the plan, Michael conducted two months of fieldwork in Shandong working in collaboration with specialists from Shandong Normal University.

Michael visited Bandung twice in 2016-17 to link up with researchers at the renowned higher education institute known as ITB. ITB has had an MOU with ICCE for several years and a new MOU between ITB and Goldsmiths was agreed in early 2017. ITB counts Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president, among its alumni.

 Michael has continued to supervise PhD students at his former university (MUST) in Macau. he has also continued to co-author papers with former colleagues and has managed to publish in high impact refereed journals. Over the 2016-17 period he will have made 3 visits in Macau.

In partnership with Birmingham City University, Michael will visit northern China to work on a project funded by the Leverhulme Foundation. The project concerns the current viability of handicrafts and furniture in contemporary Chinese markets, and the collaboration involves researchers from China, the UK and The Netherlands.