Prof. Youcheng Wang, William Peeper Destination Marketing Preeminent Chair Professor; Fellow, International Academy for the Study of Tourism; Founding Co-Editor, Journal of Destination Marketing and Management; World top 2% researcher and scholar (Stanford University); Author of more than 200 scientific publications including books. Former Dean of a major hospitality management program in USA. Prof. Abraham Pizam, Linda Chapin Endowed Professor of Tourism Management; Fellow, International Academy for the Study of Tourism; Founding Editor, International Journal of Hospitality Management; World top 2% researcher and scholar (Stanford University); Author of more than 200 articles and numerous books. Former Dean of a major hospitality management program in USA. Richard Butler was educated at Nottingham University and the University of Glasgow (PhD Geography 1973), and spent thirty years at the University of Western Ontario in Canada as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Geography, and then the University of Surrey, where he was Professor of Tourism from 1997 to 2005. He is currently Emeritus Professor of International Tourism in the Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has published a large number of journal articles, fourteen books on tourism and many chapters in other books. His fields of interest are the development process of tourist destinations the impacts of tourism, carrying capacity and sustainability, and tourism in remote areas and islands. currently serves as the Associate Dean, Interim Chair of the Tourism, Events & Attractions department as well as the Associate Director of the Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida. Professor Croes has published three books entitled, "The Small Island Paradox: Tourism Specialization as a Potential Solution", "Anatomy of Demand in International Tourism", and his most recent book "Poverty Alleviation through Tourism Development". Additionally, he is a contributor to several books. His fields of interest include: econometrics applications in hospitality, tourism demand analysis/forecasting, tourism economic impact, competitive and sustainable tourism in tourism development analysis, tourism development applied to poverty alleviation and tourism development in small islands and developing countries. Professor Croes is the recipient of the 2015 Thea Sinclair Award. Ercan Sirakaya-Turk, PhD, is a Professor of Tourism and the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management at the University of South Carolina (USC). Before joining USC, Dr Turk worked at Texas A&M and Pennsylvania State Universities. He received his PhD and MS from Clemson University, South Carolina USA. He was the 2007 recipient of US State Department's prestigious Fulbright scholarship to Russia, Saint Petersburg State University of Finance and Economics. Ercan has published a significant number of articles in the area of tourism destination marketing and tourism development in prestigious tourism journals and completed numerous grants/ contracts exceeding one million US dollars. Dr Sirakaya-Turk is the founding-editor and current associate Editor for an online tourism research bulletin (e-Review of Tourism Research). He also serves at editorial boards of numerous journals including Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research (as a resource editor), and Tourism Analysis. He teaches tourism economics, marketing and research methods classes. Muzaffer Uysal is a Provost Professor and Carney Family Endowed Professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He served as department chair from August 2016 to August 2023. Currently, Dr. Uysal is serving as the president of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and a fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences. Dr. Uysal has authored and co-authored numerous scholarly articles, five monographs, and sixteen books. He is widely recognized for his contributions, receiving over thirty awards for research, international education, teaching excellence, and lifetime achievements. Over the past four years. Dr. Uysal was listed among the top 1% of the world's most highly cited researchers by Clarivate Analytics. He has also received the Research.com Business and Management Leader Award for three consecutive years.
