Prof. Arlt is the founder and director of COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute he established in 2004 with offices in Hamburg/Germany and Beijing/China. COTRI is the leader of market research and product and strategy development consultancy project for leading international companies and organizations. Prof Arlt’s professional career has been closely linked to China from the very beginning when he studied at Fu-Jen University in Hsinchu/Taiwan (1977) and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1980/81). He holds a M.A. in Sinology (1985) and PhD in Political Sciences (2002) from FU Berlin.

After finishing his studies Prof Arlt has gathered a lot of work experience as publisher, journalist, consultant, organizer of fairs and exhibitions and as owner of outbound and inbound tour operator companies (offices in Berlin and Beijing from 1992-1999), all in connection with China, tourism and transportation. From 2002-2008 he worked as Profesor at the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund, Germany.

Since 2008 he is Professor at West Coast University of Applied Sciences Germany, where he teaches in the Bachelor and Master Programme “International Tourism Management”. Furthermore he is Supervisor of Bachelor and Master Theses at West Coast University, member of the supervisor team of PhD Theses at different universities including KU Eichstaett (Germany), Middlesborough University (UK) and the University of Girona (Spain). During the last 25 years he has been invited as a renowned keynote speaker around the world and was involved in the organization of international Conferences.