President's Message

Dear Fellows

Thank you to all Fellows who participated in the currentMembership Review. As a result we now have more updated files and know where most of you are! The Membership Committee is now reviewing all responses

As an initial result of the Membership Review a number of our long-standing, accomplished Fellows have chosen to convert their membership to Emeritus; they are:  Richard Butler, Anton Gosar, Myriam Jansen-Verbeke, Josef Mazanec, Glenn Ross, Boris Vukonic, and Stephen Wanhill. David Snepenger has chosen to no longer be a Fellow. Regrettably Georges Cazes' wife informed us that Georges is seriously ill.  We send him and his wife our good wishes at this difficult time.  On behalf of the Academy I would like to thank each of these fine scholars for their contributions to the Academy over many years. We hope that you will still feel part of the ‘family', attend our conferences and keep us informed of your activities. 

Moving forward, the Executive Committee has identified the need to update our website to make it more current and to improve the navigation. After Haiyan's search for consultants to do this, we have decided not to spend Academy funds on this, but instead launch a student Website Re-design Competition. We are offering a $500 reward for the winning student. Competition details will be sent to you soon; it will also be announced on TRINET.  Please encourage your students to compete.  The entry deadline will be around the end of March 2010.

The Executive Committee has also been looking for ways to build alliances with other conferences to make us more visible.  We have been working with CAUTHE (Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education) and in February 2010 we will be sponsoring the conference in Hobart, Tasmania. I will represent the Academy by giving a Plenary Address and contributing to the PhD workshop among other things. We are also planning a ‘satellite' meeting of the Academy Fellows in Hobart. If this arrangement is successful, not only will we continue with CAUTHE in coming years, but look for other quality conferences where we can have an Academy presence. Please send us your feedback and suggestions on this initiative.

Last month the Executive Committee hosted two Skype calls with our six new Fellows (three on each call). We listened to their ideas and suggestions for the Academy and its future and their possible roles in that development. Many fruitful suggestions were given including how to improve the nomination process based on their experience. Larry and his committee are considering how to fine-tune the nomination process for next year and will give recommendations in the next newsletter.

Our publications are looking good. Doug and Dick report that the book publication from the 20th anniversary conference is ahead of schedule. Rick has already completed the articles on the economic crisis session for Journal of Travel Research and that will be in press very soon.  A big thank you to these Fellows for their work in creating quality publications where our colleagues can learn more about the Academy's work.

We are already preparing for the Taiwan conference in 2011, and the sub-committee formed in Mallorca (Chair: Geoff Wall, Cathy Hsu and Eugeni Aguilo) is assisting T.C. Huan with decisions about locations, tours etc.  The conference theme has yet to be decided -  if you have ideas please let us know. Our initial thinking is something like “Stretching the Boundaries of Tourism Scholarship” – just an idea. As you know we have Portugal confirmed for 2013 and expressions of interest are already being received for 2015. The Executive Committee realizes the need to further formalize the bidding process for Academy conference host locations and is working on this.

That is what we have been up to since Mallorca.  We are always eager to hear from you about your ideas for improving the Academy, so please be in touch.

With best wishes

Pauline
psheldon@hawaii.edu