The College of Geography and Tourism of Chongqing Normal University is derived from combination of the College of Geographical Science and College of Tourism in 2010. The College of Geographical Science and the College of Tourism were founded in 2004. The college of Geographical Science was formerly the Geography Specialty established of Chongqing Normal Specialized Postsecondary College in 1954 and renamed the Department of Geography in 1960. The College of Tourism was formerly the Tourism Specialty established in 1995 and renamed Chongqing Tourism College in 1998.

The college has 7 departments, including the Department of Geographic Science, the Department of Geo-Information Science, the Department of Tourism Management, the Department of Hotel Management, the Department of Urban-rural Planning,the Department of Flight Attendant Services and Etiquette and the Department of Landscape and Gardening. It has established one municipal key discipline (geography), being home to such teaching and scientific research platforms as Chongqing Key Laboratory for Remote Sensing of Surface Process and Environment in the Three Gorges Area, Chongqing Key Laboratory for Scientific Research on Wetlands at the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing Key Geographical Information System Application Research Laboratory for Higher Education Institutions, Chongqing Municipal Expert Academician Workstation, Chongqing Operating Base of the Overseas Intelligence Service Action Plan of China Association for Science and Technology, Chongqing Geographical Teaching Demonstration Center, Chongqing Tourism Talent Cultivation and Coordinated Innovation Center, Chongqing Tourism Development Research Center, Tourism Experiment System and Flight Attendant Services and Etiquette Training Center.

The college is an important base in the southwestern region for cultivating talents in geography and tourism, and is relied upon by the Ministry of Education for training of vocational tourism teachers. It offers master programs of 2 general disciplines (i.e. Geography and Business Administration), 3 special master programs, and 8 undergraduate programs. Presently, it has over 1,700 undergraduates and more than 200 master candidates. It also has a strong faculty, a municipal higher education institution innovation team and teaching team. In the college, there are 90 full-time teachers. Among the teachers, there are 6 included in the “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talents Program of China” and the “New Century Outstanding Talents Support Program” of the Ministry of Education or selected as candidates for banner-holders of academic researches and technology in Chongqing, 26 professors, 35 associate professors, and 45 teachers holding doctor’s degree; Teachers of senior professional titles account for 63% in all full-time teachers, while teachers holding doctor’s degree accounting for 49% in all full-time teachers.

The college always performs scientific research and social services centering on environmental and ecological construction, tourism development, economic operation and management, urban-rural living environment and land utilization in the Three Gorges reservoir area and Chongqing, having achieved great academic results and good social benefits. In recent five years, it has hosted and undertaken 102 projects of national, provincial or ministerial level, and received longitudinal scientific research funds amounting to 17.7 million yuan. Among the projects, there is 1 project – “Key technology and demonstration of generally planning and protecting traditional dwellings in mountainous areas” included in the National Science-Technology Support Plan, 2 sub-projects of the National Science and Technology Major Project, and more than 10 projects supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Social Science Fund of China. For these projects, it has received lateral funds amounting to 22.09 million yuan. Besides, the college has published more than 880 academic articles (including 49 articles collected by SCI/EI and 63 published in discipline-level journals), and 28 works. It has won 7 provincial or ministerial awards for scientific and technological achievements. Additionally, it has 12 invention patents and utility models, and 13 software copyrights.

Following the spirit of “openness, toleration, high aspiration, devotion, earnest practice, factualism and innovation”, the college adheres to the focus of cultivating talent, gives top priority to discipline construction, and takes serving the society as the orientation, while advancing to become a first-class teaching and research college in western China.