The team "Mom Said I would Win," which was led by Prof. Ying-Ren Pan, from the Department of Leisure, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won second place in the National Tourism Itinerary Design Competition—the 9th "An Urban and Rural Tour for A Green Feast" National Tourism Competition—with their excellent performance from among the 62 teams across the country.

[The student team "Mom Said I would Win" from the Department of Leisure, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, was making its presentation. The team was formed by Chiao-Zhen Hsu, Yu-Jia Tong, Yu-Shan Deng, and Pei-Shan Shih (from left to right).]

In the face of the rapid changes in the global natural environment and the pace of life of our fellow people accelerating with economic development, the pursuit of health, sustainability, and environmental protection is becoming increasingly popular. Department of Leisure Business Management, Chaoyang University of Science and Technology, held the 9th "An Urban and Rural Tour for A Green Feast" National Tourism Competition. The planning contents of this tour itinerary design competition this year is based on group traveling in Taiwan (including the main island and its outlying islands). Participants must designate the tourists as elderly people, and they need to highlight the characteristics of "health, sustainability, liveliness, environmental protection and education." The main hope is to cultivate students to a new life of "healthy, sustainable, happy life, environmental protection and education" through competitions. The concept for participants to design and plan in-depth local tourism is to provide innovative ways for Chinese people to enjoy live entertainment.

[The student team "Mom Said I would Win" from the Department of Leisure, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, was making its presentation. The team was formed by Yu-Jia Tong, Chiao-Zhen Hsu, Pei-Shan Shih, Yu-Shan Deng, and their advisor Prof. Ying-Ren Pan (from left to right).]

[The student team "Mom Said I Would Win," led by Prof Ying-Ren Pan, from the Department of Leisure, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the competition with their “A Fresh and Bright Trip to be Easy and Young.” Their design was based on the beautiful Hakka towns Miaoli and Hsinchu as the travel destinations, using the concept of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) as the main axis of their design with three types of suitable for the silver-haired people:  Lifestyles: to experience the life styles of different cultures (hot springs, Hakka, aboriginal residents, and religions);  Health: to have healthy diet, life, physical and mental growth (fendotine, agricultural products, light food, and hot springs); and  Sustainability: to have a green tour experiencing ecologically and spiritual sustainability (low-carbon entertainment, environmentally friendly hotels, and energy-efficient transportation).

As Prof. Ying-Ren Pan said, with the improvement of education and medical standards and life expectancy, elderly people are more and more aware of loving themselves and driving huge business opportunities. In the ageing society, the elderly people are regarded as a potential consumer group. Our students design a course suitable for elderly people through the competition; they enter the industry after graduation and will surely inject new living water into the tourism industry and change the stale concept that the elders' journeys are all in the incense group. It is hoped that this tour will promote green tourism, bring people more joy and create healthy and accessible travel experience for the elderly.

Deng-Maw Lu, President of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that STUST attaches great importance to students' practical skills. The future education will not be limited to a single aspect; it will be a cross-disciplinary cooperative learning. Students participating in the competition can apply classroom theory and gain practical experience. It is also the best stage to test their expertise and skills. The award-winning students have implemented their creative ideas into an innovative journey. As their performance was quite brilliant, we believe that they will have a good performance after entering the workplace.