On December 3, 2025, the Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management (THEM) Programme was honored to host Dr. Hengyun Li, Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In classroom CC302, Dr. Li delivered a seminar titled “Survival Analysis Through Text-Image Fusion and Joint Learning: A Multimodal Prediction and Attribution Model for Restaurant Success.”

Dr. Li opened the seminar by highlighting the restaurant industry's crucial role in urban economy and culture, noting that up to 80% of restaurants face high failure rates, which underscores the importance of AI-driven survival prediction. To address this challenge, his team proposed the Interpretable Multimodal Restaurant Survival Prediction (IMRSP) Model. By fusing text and images from online reviews, the IMRSP model establishes an analytical framework that offers both high predictive accuracy and strong interpretability.

Dr. Li further detailed the IMRSP model’s three core modules: multimodal representation extraction, image–text interaction fusion, and multi-task joint learning. Together, these modules enable the model to simultaneously generate survival predictions and natural language explanations. Experimental results show that the model significantly outperforms traditional methods in terms of both prediction accuracy and interpretability. This not only demonstrates the commercial potential of multimodal data, but also provides the restaurant industry with an interpretable AI-based risk management tool. Building on these findings, the team plans to extend the model to multi-city applications and to incorporate spatiotemporal and competitive data to construct a more comprehensive prediction system.

During the interactive session, Dr. Li engaged in in-depth exchanges with faculty and students on topics including multimodal data processing, model design, AI interpretability, and industry-academia collaboration. The lively discussion helped participants gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between restaurant digitalization, theoretical innovation, and practical methodology.

This lecture served as a key initiative jointly promoted by the THEM Programme and the School of Culture and Creativity to explor the intersection of “Tourism/Hospitality × AI × Multimodal Learning.” It offered faculty and students a valuable opportunity to engage with the integration of academic innovation and industry practice, laying a solid foundation for future in-depth collaboration in related fields.

Biography:

Dr. Hengyun Li is an Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, specializing in digital platforms, social media, and human-centered AI. He has been recognized among Stanford University’s “World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists”, and his research has been featured by authoritative organizations including the World Health Organization and BBC News.

Text: Danting Cai, Weilu Wang

Photos: Weilu Wang