ITSA is the first China-based global academic association on tourism research in the world. The Association is founded in Hangzhou on August 15th 2006 by19 founding members all over the world, and headquartered at Peking University in Beijing. ITSA got registered as a non-profit organization in Hong Kong in March 2008.
As a nonprofit organization, the objectives of ITSA is to bridge the gap between West and East in tourism and hospitality research, to provide a forum for exchange of research ideas and good research practices in tourism studies among scholars around the world with a particular focus on the developing countries and to diffuse research findings for the benefits of the tourism industry.