Guilin Institute of Tourism (GLIT) was founded in 1985 when there were few public higher learning institutions of this kind across China. The school was upgraded and renamed Guilin Tourism University (GLTU) in 2015. The present landscape of GLTU is defined by two campuses Canluan and Yanshan, which covers a total land area of about 125 hectares. GLTU is an affiliate members of UNWTO and PATA and also a National Training Center for ASEAN tourism  professionals designated by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).On March 29 2015 , during her official visit to GLTU, Madam Liu Yandong, the Chinese State Councilor and Vice Premier gave high recognition to the great educational accomplishment of the school and showed her hope to further upgrade the school to be a top tourism school in the world.

   The 13 academic divisions in GLTU includes the School of Tourism and Leisure Management , School of Hotel Management , School of Tourism Foreign Language, School of International Business, School of Artistic Design, School of Culture and Communication, School of Transportation Operation and Service,  General Education Department , TESOL Department, School of Continued Education, School of International Education and Exchange and the GL School of International Hotel Management. 42 programs with 58 professional orientations in line with the main aspects of tourism are offered to 9,000 strong full-time students hailing from the different parts of China and ASEAN.

   GLTU has 529 full-time teachers, among whom 49 are professors and 138 associate professors. To strengthen the academic prowess, GLTU invites preeminent researchers in certain fields and elites from certain industries to give lectures and long-contract jobs are available for qualified experts from other regions and countries; at the same time, its own full time teachers are funded when they go abroad for further learning or other academic activities. In addition to the strength of its faculty team, GLTU takes pride in its creative integration of teaching and practice, international collaboration and character cultivation. This boosts the academic achievements: 8 programs have passed the UNWTO TedQual certification and 16 programs have been conferred the titles of Pilot Vocational Program by the China Ministry of Education.

    GLTU graduates are highly sought in the job market. Over the last 5 years more than 300 GLTU students have been accepted as interns or directly employed by the tourism businesses in America, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, and France. Most of GLTU graduates are working in the domestic or foreign tourism businesses, their performance meeting the requirements of different positions; GLTU has, by all standards, led the other Chinese counterparts in the rate of employment and the job suitability for graduates. This explains why, for 10 consecutive years, GLTU has been singled out by the Department for Education in Guangxi province as a role model in this respect for other schools to follow.   

   Together with education and training, research is also put by GLTU on top of its work agenda. GLTU has set up two centers on campus: Guangxi Tourism Research Centerand Guilin Tourism Planning Center. The two centers aim to provide consulting services. GLTU has played a key role in more than 30 state-funded or province-funded social science or other research projects and some of the projects have been initiated with a view to advising on multi-billion-RMB investments. Together with more than 10 city- or county-level entities within or without Guangxi province, GLTU has worked on planning tourism development, training tourism professionals and designing local tourism handicrafts as well as on drafting relevant criteria or standards. The total of the projects of this kind surpasses 50.

   GLTU has not confined itself to China but tried every means to extend and broaden its horizon. It has established links with 15 counterparts in America and Canada. As many as 170 world-class leisure and hotel businesses like the Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai and Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi have gone into partnership with GLTU. The international character of GLTU has grown strong. This has attracted the attention of dignitaries like Russian vice Prime Minister and UNWTO Secretary-Generals, who visited GLTU and addressed its faculty and students. GLTU is committed to assisting GMS as well as ASEAN countries in their tourism development. Under the auspices of the Asia Development Bank, GLTU has designed a series of short-term courses. They have been delivered largely by GLTU teachers to 10 batches of senior tourism professionals from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.  GLTU is designated by CNTA as the first tourism education and training base in the south-western China. On campus there are national vocational skills assessment centers. The centers are authorized to issue as many as 54 categories of certificates to those who have passed the assessment tests. Given the circumstances, GLTU is responsible for training department managers and general managers from hotels and travel agencies as well as other tourism professionals from different parts of China. The total of the trainees has surpassed 50,000.

   On-campus extra-curricular activities are diverse. Different clubs have their own schedules. They organize foreign language play carnivals, tour guide contests, etiquette shows and GLTU forums.  The baseball and softball clubs in particular are noteworthy because they have brought back 8 championship trophies from the national baseball and softball tournaments. They are best known for their participation in the 12th National Games on behalf of the Guangxi province.

   To sum up, whatever GLTU has been working hard at is for the purpose of building itself into a leading school with its own characteristics which provides (more) knowledgeable, (more) skillful and (more) competent professionals for the tourism industry. To achieve the goal, GLTU has to often rectify the past, enhance the present and envision the future. Only by doing so can GLTU really claim to be a culture-distinctive, industry-predominant, nation-leading and world-renowned tourism school one day in the near future.