VISITING PROFESSORS
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Prof. Dr. Tom Baum
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Tom Baum is a Professor and Head of the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation in the Strathclyde Business School, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and a specialist in the study of employment, education, and training in the context of international tourism and hospitality industry. He has over 35 years of experience in vocational and higher education and specializes in workforce planning, curriculum development, programme design, and assessment. Tom has published ten books and over 175 scientific papers in the context of vocational education and training. He has supervised over 35 Ph.D. students to completion and acted as External Examiner for over 50 doctorates in 6 countries. Tom has worked with a variety of international agencies in his area of specialization, including the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, UNWTO, COMCEC, and the EU. He holds or has held visiting appointments to universities in Australia, Estonia, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales. I have been a panel member and chair for institutional and programme reviews in 12 countries.
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Visiting/Adjunct Professors
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gretzel
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Ulrike Gretzel is currently a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. Before joining USC, she was a Professor in the Business School at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. She also held full-time appointments at the University of Wollongong and Texas A&M University and taught courses at IULM in Milan, Italy, and MODUL University in Vienna, Austria. Her research focuses on persuasion in human-technology interactions, information search and processing, electronic decision aids, smart technologies, online and social media marketing, adoption and use of technologies, as well as non-adoption and digital detox. Her research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, the Hong Kong Research Council, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the US National Science Foundation, the US National Endowment for the Humanities, the US National Park Service, Parks Canada, TripAdvisor, the Bush Presidential Library and Museum, and a number of national, regional and local tourism organizations in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in major, tourism, and marketing journals. She has co-edited several books on social media marketing and tourism.
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Prof. Dr. Michael Hall
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C. Michael Hall is currently a Professor in Marketing and Tourism in the Department of Management, Marketing & Entrepreneurship at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, joining the department at the start of 2007. He is also currently a Docent in Geography, University of Oulu, Finland; a Visiting Professor in tourism, School of Business & Economics, Linneaus University, Kalmar, Sweden and a Guest Professor in the Department of Service Management at Lund Helsingborg campus, Sweden. His doctorate is in geography from the University of Western Australia, from which he also received an honors degree in politics. His master's is from the Faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada, in geography/resource management. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Umeå in Sweden (2008), Oulu in Finland (2012), and Lund University, Sweden (2016). According to Google Scholar analysis for the category of tourism, he is currently the most cited scholar in the area and is also very highly cited in geography, regional development, sustainability, and global environmental change. In 2009 he was named the Elsevier ScienceDirect ‘For Great Thinking’, Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences category winner. Current research is focusing on degrowth; global environmental change; resilience; disaster response (especially in relation to earthquakes, floods, heatwaves, climate change); biodiversity loss; behavioral interventions for sustainability; social marketing; regional development; sustainable foodways; halal food and hospitality; World Heritage; tourism and public transport; active transport; service scapes; walking; and privacy issues in tourism and hospitality.
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Prof. Dr. Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
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Freya Higgins-Desbiolles is a senior researcher in Tourism Management, at the University of South Australia and the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo. Her work focuses on social justice, human rights, and sustainability issues in tourism and affiliated sectors. She is the co-editor of the book Socialising Tourism: Rethinking Tourism for Social and Ecological Justice. She has won awards for excellence in teaching, research, industry engagement, and media presence.
Freya's work focuses on the impacts of tourism, tourism policy, and planning, tourism sustainability, indigenous tourism, politics of tourism, and peace through tourism. Geographical areas of interest include Indigenous Australia, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and the Asia-Pacific region. Recent research projects have explored Aboriginal tourism, sustainable cafes, native foods in restaurants, and tourism's role in peace and conflict. She is a recipient of a Council of Australian University Educators in Tourism and Hospitality Fellows Award for a significant contribution to hospitality and tourism research and education in 2013. Her research is focused on projects that deliver new insights into the tourism phenomenon and that advocate a more just and sustainable tourism future. Her work is engaging and she has formed research partnerships with tourism and hospitality stakeholders. She particularly tries to work with "host communities" and the NGO sector who seek to shape tourism to their needs and for positive futures. She received a commendation for industry collaboration in 2014 from the UniSA Business School.
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Emertius Prof. Dr. Jafar Jafari
Jafar Jafari is a Professor of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Department of Hospitality and Tourism (USA). He came to this position trained as a cultural anthropologist (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, USA) and as hotel administration graduate (BS and MS, Cornell University, USA), bringing with him additionally an honorary doctorate from the Universitat de les Illes Balears (Spain). Jafar’s contributions to the academic community span international boundaries and institutions. He is Visiting Professor at the Universidade do Algarve (Portugal), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), and Sun Yat-sen University (China); Lifetime Honorary Professorship of Bundelkhand University (India), and international Program Director of the Universitat de les Illes Balears (Spain).
In addition to research and teaching, Jafar holds numerous editorial board positions and has established foundational journals, books, and networks within tourism studies. He is the Founding Editor of Annals of Tourism Research: A Social Sciences Journal. Jafar is also Chief Editor of Tourism Social Science (book) Series; Co-Chief Editor, Bridging Tourism Theory and Practice book series; Chief Editor, Encyclopedia of Tourism; Co-Founding Editor, Information Technology & Tourism; Co-Founder, TRINET: Tourism Research Information Network; and Founding President, International Academy for the Study of Tourism.
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Prof. Dr. Fevzi Okumus
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Professor Fevzi Okumus is the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association (CFHLA) Preeminent Chair Professor within the Hospitality Services Department at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He was the Founding Chair of the Hospitality Services Department at UCF Rosen College. His main teaching and research areas include strategic management, leadership, hospitality management and lodging. He has over 270 academic publications (over 180 refereed journal articles, four books, 12 book chapters and 90 conference presentations and reports). As of August 12, 2022, his publications have received over 16790 citations, and he has an h-index of 61. He has chaired/co-chaired and served on numerous PhD dissertation and master thesis committees. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM) (IF: 9.321) and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights (JHTI). He is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He has received numerous prestigious research awards and recognitions including “The Michael D. Olsen Research Award” in 2016; “The University of Central Florida Scroll & Quill Society Award” in 2017, the “CFHLA Preeminent Professor” again in 2017 and the John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award from ICHRIE in 2018. Finally, Prof. Okumus was recognized as a “Highly Cited Researcher” for 2021 by Clarivate, based on data from Web of Science. The Highly Cited Researchers rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index.
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Prof. Dr. Haywantee Ramkissoon
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Haywantee (Rumi) Ramkissoon is Research Professor (Full) of Tourism Marketing at the UniSA Business, University of South Australia. She leads the visitor economy research group. She is also affiliated with the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her scholarship in sustainability research e.g., sustainable tourism, corporate social responsibility, place attachment, cultural tourism, pro-environmental behavior, and public health has gained international significance evidenced by media coverage, prestigious awards, and academic and industry keynotes. She engages in collaborative research with national and international academic and industry partners for the benefit of individuals and society. She serves on several editorial advisory boards of top-tier journals and as a reviewer across disciplines.
Prof. Dr. Noel Scott
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Noel Scott, is an Adjunct Professor of Tourism Management, at the Sustainable Research Centre, University of Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. His research interests include the study of tourism experiences, and destination management and marketing. He is a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences. He has over 300 academic publications including 17 books. He has supervised 30 doctoral students to successfully complete of their theses. He is on the Editorial Board of many top tourism journals, a member of the International Association of China Tourism Scholars, and a Fellow of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education.
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Prof. Dr. Marianna Sigala
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Marianna Sigala is Professor at the University of Piraeus, Greece. She previously held the position of the Professor of Tourism and the Director of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management at the University of South Australia (2015 – 2021). She has also been an academic staff at the University of Strathclyde and Westminster University (UK), and the University of the Aegean (Greece). Her academic credentials are combined with her professional experience in the tourism industry. Her interests include services and experience management, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and hospitality, as well as wine tourism. She is a widely published and multi-awarded authority: nine books, numerous papers in academic journals, and (keynote) presentations in international conferences. She has a long record of leadership and participation in international research projects funded by various entities such as the E.U., the Council of Europe and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. She is a past President of EuroCHRIE and a past member of the executive board of ICHRIE and IFITT. She currently serves at the executive board of CAUTHE. She is the co-editor of the Journal of Service Theory & Practice, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In 2016, she has been awarded the prestigious EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements to tourism and hospitality education. Since 2020, Professor Sigala is also appointed as Research Fellow of CAUTHE.
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Dr. Anna Farmaki
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Anna Farmaki is an Assistant Professor in Tourism Management at the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Cyprus University of Technology. She holds a PhD in Marketing from Nottingham Trent University. She also holds a Master's degree in Marketing from Kingston University and a BA in Business Management from the University of Westminster, London. In the past, she worked as a lecturer and a programme leader for Hospitality and Tourism Management programmes in private higher education institutions in Cyprus. Her research has been published in reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journals and she has participated in international scientific conferences and workshops. She has also been invited as a speaker in universities abroad whereas currently she is visiting lecturer at Stralsund University of Applied Sciences in Germany. She is a member of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom and a representative of the Republic of Cyprus in European COST Actions.
Visiting/Adjunct Associate Professors
Dr. Raymond Rastegar
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Dr Raymond Rastegar has a Master of Environmental Sciences and holds a PhD in tourism management and is a lecturer and researcher in Tourism at the UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on sustainable tourism development in developing countries with specific interest in local community livelihood, participation, empowerment, and environmental conservation. Recent research projects have investigated the impacts of tourism at local level and delivered new insights into the tourism phenomenon to advocate a more just and sustainable tourism future for humans and nonhumans. He has been invited to deliver lectures and talks on social justice and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in different international conferences and universities. He was awarded a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2019. His research appears in high-quality journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Dr. Siamak Seyfi
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Dr. Siamak Seyfi is an Assistant Professor at the Geography Research Unit of the University of Oulu, Finland. Using an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach, his research interests focus on tourism mobilities, political consumerism, sustainability, resilience, as well as qualitative sociological/ethnographic research methods in tourism. Siamak has published in leading tourism journals and serves on the editorial boards of multiple tourism journals.
Dr. Erose Sthapit
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Dr. Erose Sthapit is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism, MRT Department, Manchester Metropolitan University. He moved to Manchester in December 2021 from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. He successfully completed by PhD in Marketing (focusing on Consumer Behaviour in Tourism) in 2018 from University of Vaasa (2014-2018), and completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree from Finland and is linked to tourism.