Member Activities

Thomas Baum

Gianna Moscardo and Tom teamed up to contribute to a review of tourism and hospitality programs in the University of Botswana. They were greatly impressed by the quality of facilities at the University combined with very enthusiastic staff. There is both the potential for and the vision of really innovative approaches to tourism and hospitality education in the University but achieving this is hampered by a chronic shortage of well qualified staff at both leadership and more junior levels.

Douglas Frechtling

Doug co-presented a paper at the Annual Conference of the International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators in Dublin, Ireland on September 30: "Minding the Roots: Incorporating Values-based Learning in Distance Tourism and Hospitality Management Masters Curricula".

Donald Getz

In November 2008 Donald started as Professor, School of Tourism, University of Queensland in Australia. This is a half position and he continues as Professor in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, and as Visiting Professor in the University of Gothenburg, Centre for Tourism, in Sweden.

Gareth Shaw

Gareth is lead co-applicant together with a number of other colleagues at the University of Exeter (UK) for a successful £1.5m grant from the ESRC for a Capacity Building Cluster on Sport, Leisure and Tourism. The award will act as a funding basis for Ph.D. students in tourism over the next 5 years. The award provides the basis for postgraduates to work alongside sponsoring organizations and in addition the grant will also allow the formation of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which bring together academic and commercial interests with tourism.

Tej Vir Singh

Tej Vir participated at the 4th world conference for graduate research in Tourism, Hospitality and leisure organized by Anatolia journal, Turkey held in Otium Hotel Zeyep, Anatalya, Turkey on April 22-27, 2008. Tej Vir chaired the opening session devoted to “Tourist experiences and Perceptions”. He was also panelist on the session titled “publishing in Tourism and Hospitality Journals with Juegren Gnoth (Annals), K. Andriotis (Tourism Policy) and Metin Kozak (Anatolia).

Tej Vir has co-authored a chapter ”Spiritual Wanderlust: Celebration of the Human Quest” to the book Philosophical Issues in Tourism edited by John Tribe, being published by Elsevier. Also contributed a chapter “Bliss of the Mountain: The Husanghan Exsperiecne” in the book Experiencing China – Travel Stories by Tourism Experts. The Book was out of press from Hong Kong in October 2008.

Norbert Vanhove

Norbert participated from 13-18 October in the master program “Tourism and Environmental Economics” at the university “Universitat de les Illes Balears” He taught together with Prof. Vincente Ramos “Tourism Economics”. The central themes of his lectures were: TSA, Competition and destinations, economic impact of tourism and micro and macro evaluation of tourism projects.

Together with Martin Lohmann, Norbert organized the 43rd TRC meeting In Kiel (Germany) last April.

Myriam Jansen-Verbeke

Myriam has a new edited book CULTURAL RESOURCES FOR TOURISM: PATTERNS, PROCESSES AND POLICIES, co-edited by Gerda K. Priestley (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) and Antonio Paolo Russo (Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain).

The cultural heritage of regions and communities is presently being rediscovered and valorized as a driving force in building cultural identity and as a ubiquitous resource for dynamizing cultural activities. This process can lead to the development of cultural capital with clear territorial links and, as such, a favorable incubation condition for creating sustainable and competitive forms of cultural tourism.

Research on cultural resources for tourism implies both a multidisciplinary approach and methodological innovations to deal with such a complex phenomenon. The challenge to identify and map cultural heritage elements – tangible and intangible – in a pan European context has recently been dealt with in the ESPON project 1.3.3 (2004-2006). Lack of adequate definitions, poor databases at a regional or local level, and a showcase of national and sector differences in approaching culture as “resource” for development were the final balance of that explorative project. These findings have prompted further case study research into the study of cultural heritage, which is encapsulated in this book.

This new publication differs from others on cultural tourism through its emphasis on spatial dynamics, by analyzing location and behavior patterns in different tourism destinations, by identifying the parameters of change induced by tourism and, not in the least, trial and error examples in policy making. The book includes a rich variety of case studies mainly from all over Europe (but also including cases set in Israel, Cairo and India), representing the views and findings of 21 international researchers and scholars in cultural tourism, scanning unique situations in order to detect the common dynamics and impacts of tourismification. The final objective is to propose consistent directions for policy, based on empirical insights.

The book contributes to the understanding of cultural diversity and territorial identity, on the one hand, and to the dynamics of tourism, on the other, all of which are key issues in local and regional planning and management.

Peter Williams

Peter, along with his colleagues, Dr. Wolfgang Haider, and his Ph.D. student (Dr. Joseph Kelly) recently received the "Charles R. Goeldner 'rticle of Excellence Award" from the Travel and Tourism Research Association. This award recognized their article "A behavioral assessment of tourism transportation options for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gases", Journal of Travel Research, 45, February, 297-309 as the top paper published in the Journal of Travel Research in 2007.

Peter, along with his colleagues at Simon Fraser University's Centre for Tourism Policy and Research organized and hosted the 58th Conference of The Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism. Held in Whistler, British Columbia in September 2008, the conference's theme was Tourism Real Estate Development. It attracted a good mix of European academic scholars and researchers, as well as professionals managing real estate development in North America.