Prelims

Half Title Page

Contemporary Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism

Endorsements

The depth and breadth of hospitality and tourism research have gained significant momentum over the years as reflected in academic journals, books, and conferences. The scope and range of issues suggest that the topic of hospitality and tourism research is multidimensional, complex, and poses challenges and new opportunities for academics and practitioners. A book like this one “Contemporary Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism” is timely and certainly contains novel research approaches and narratives that will not only facilitate our research undertakings but also empower us as researchers to be more effective and creative in the ways we generate knowledge and offer solutions. It is a must-have book for researchers and practitioners.

Professor and Chair, Muzaffer Uysal, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

The go-to guide for exploring contemporary research and methods in hospitality and tourism. In the ever-changing landscape of research, bringing great academicians together to share their expertise is the best way to dive deep into contemporary research and methods in hospitality and tourism and to get inspired for your research. The readers get a wide variety of compelling information from research paradigms and philosophies to survey design and qualitative research.

Dr Cihan Cobanoglu, CHTP, Professor and Interim Dean, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, McKibbon Endowed Chair & Director of M3 Center Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, USA

Research methods are the foundation of quality scholarly work. This book not only discusses the bigger issues of research philosophies, ethics, and approaches but also the specifics of implementing rigorous qualitative and quantitative studies. Both new and experienced researchers could learn from this collection of materials as research methods continue to evolve and develop.

Prof. Cathy Hsu, Editor-in-Chief of Tourism Management, Chair Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR China

Title Page

Contemporary Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism

Edited by

Fevzi Okumus

University of Central Florida, USA

S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh

Taylor's University, Malaysia

And

Shiva Jahani

University of Central Florida, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Editorial matter and selection © 2022 Fevzi Okumus, S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh and Shiva Jahani

Individual chapters © 2022 the authors

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-547-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-546-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-548-7 (Epub)

Dedication

Dedication by Fevzi Okumus:

I like to dedicate this book to my graduate students and co-authors.

List of Figures

List of Tables

About the Editors

Dr Fevzi Okumus is the CFHLA Preeminent Chair Professor within the Hospitality Services Department at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He has over 160 refereed journal articles, three books, 12 book chapters, and 90 conferenced presentations and reports. As of August 1, 2021, his publications have received over 13300 citations and he has an h-index of 55. He has chaired/cochaired 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: 6.514) and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights (JHTI). He has received numerous prestigious research awards and recognitions. Prof. Okumus has been named as one of the highly cited researchers for 2021 by Clarivate, based on data from Web of Science.

Dr S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), and Head of Research for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, in Taylor's University, Malaysia. He has published more than 100 articles in refereed journals including high-impact journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, International Journal of Contemporaneity Hospitality Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, and International Journal of Tourism Research, among others. Dr Mostafa has published several methodological papers on different topics as well. Mostafa is an editorial board member of more than 15 reputed tourism and hospitality journals, and he serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Associate Editor (Methodology) of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Regional Editor Asia of the Service Industries Journal, and the International Journal of Tourism Policy.

Dr Shiva Jahani is a data scientist and tourism and hospitality scholar. She leverages her data science expertise as a statistician and graduate faculty in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida. She applies her tourism and hospitality expertise as an instructor of Revenue Management in Hospitality at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management as well as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights (JHTI). Dr Jahani has served as an invited board member and researcher of the World Academy for the Future of Women (WAFW). She has published over 20 articles in refereed journals as well as several methodological white papers on a variety of topics. Dr Jahani's research includes invited collaborations on funded projects from such funders as: (1) FEMA, (2) NSF, and (3) FDA.

About the Contributors

Dr Faizan Ali is an Associate Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida. He received his PhD in Marketing from the International Business School, University Technology Malaysia, and a Master's in Management from Wrexham Glyndwr University, United Kingdom. Dr Ali has also authored more than 100 international refereed journal articles and international conference papers. His recent research has been accepted and published in internationally refereed top-tier hospitality, tourism, and services related journals. Dr Ali is a recipient of numerous research awards and is an active member of academic hospitality associations. Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of numerous hospitality and services journals. He also manages a dedicated YouTube Channel “ResearchBeast” to discuss issues related to research and researchers. Recently, he was included in the Stanford University's list of Top 2% Scientists of the World for the year 2019.

Jaylan Azer is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, UK. Her research interest focuses within the services domain on the complementary concepts of Service-Dominant Logic, value cocreation, and actor/customer engagement. Within this domain, Jaylan has a focus on consumer behaviors in online social networks. Her research has been published in marketing and service journals including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Marketing Management, and Journal of Services Marketing.

Dr Katerina Berezina, CHTP, CRME, CHIA, is an Associate Professor and a Hospitality Management program Director in the Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management at the University of Mississippi. Dr Berezina's research interests are in the areas of information technology in hospitality and tourism, electronic distribution, and revenue management. She serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology. Dr Berezina is also a coordinator of two university programs that integrate real-life hotel software into the hospitality curriculum: innRoad University Program and M3 Insight University Program. Also, she serves as the Vice Chair of the CHTP Advisory Council with Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), and as the Director of Membership Services with the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT).

Bernhard F. Bichler holds a PhD in Management from the Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and currently works in the research, development, and corporate services unit of an Austrian federal ministry. With a background in Geography and International Business Studies, he is fascinated by interdisciplinary research and focuses on entrepreneurship and destination management with a special focus on sustainable innovations and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Kadir Çakar, PhD, is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Tourism at Mardin Artuklu University. His PhD examined the motivations and experiences of travellers visiting Gallipoli Peninsula within the context of dark tourism. His main research areas include Qualitative Research, Dark Tourism, Tourist Destination Governance, Information Communication Technologies, Crisis Management, Sustainable Tourism, and Sharing Economy.

Dr Raquel Camprubí is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Girona. She completed her PhD in 2009, focusing on tourism image formation and relational networks, and she was awarded with the PhD Extraordinary Award on Management and Business Administration 2011. She is Maîtrise en Ingenerie et Commercialisation des Produits Touristiques from University of Toulouse – Le Mirail. Her research interests cover tourist behavior, destination management, tourism image and branding, and risk perception. Her research has been published in international journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, and Current Issues in Tourism. She teaches in several subjects focusing on marketing, management, and research methods. She also collaborates regularly with several European universities, and she is member of the research group Organizational Networks and Innovation in Tourism (ONIT).

Neil Carr is a Professor in the Department of Tourism, University of Otago. His research focuses on understanding behavior within tourism and leisure experiences, with a particular emphasis on children and families, sex and animals (especially dogs). The brains behind the wonky façade of Neil belong to Sarah and Ebony (and before her Gypsy and Snuffie).

Muhittin Cavusoglu, PhD, CHE, CHIA, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management and Director of the Hospitality Digital Transformation Lab (HDTLab) at the Northern Arizona University. He has been serving as the Director of International Conferences for the Association of North America Higher Education International (ANAHEI), a nonprofit organization with more than 8,000 members from 110+ countries. In this role, he is responsible for organizing/arranging conferences in different cities around the world. Prior to joining the NAU, Dr Cavusoglu served as an M3 Center Visiting Assistant Professor in the College of Hospitality and Tourism Leadership at the University of South Florida. Dr Cavusoglu's research interests are information technology in hospitality and tourism, event management, and online learning and training in hospitality and tourism. To date, he has contributed 49 academic publications including refereed journal articles, international conference papers and presentations, book chapters, and invited papers. He is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Global Business Insights (JGBI), and Associate Editor of the Journal of Global Education and Research (JGER) and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases (JHTC).

Olena Ciftci is a PhD candidate, and a graduate assistant at the Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management and the Research & Analytics Laboratory in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Mississippi. Her research interest is in information technologies in the hospitality industry, revenue management, consumer behavior, and research methods. Olena is the author of articles in academic journals, including the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, publications in professional journals, and two book chapters. She presented her research at international academic conferences. Olena serves as Editorial Assistant of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology and a reviewer for four highly ranked academic journals in hospitality and tourism.

Dr Emine Cihangir, the first author, is an academic in the Tourism Department at Van Yuzuncu Yil University in Turkey. In addition to her Bachelors and Masters degrees (MBA), she has a PhD in Management & Organization from Marmara University in Istanbul. She is an editor of the Geographies, Planning & Tourism Studios. She has professional experience in hotel management and has published papers on several aspects of tourism in Turkey. Her special interests include cheese tourism, tourism education, sustainable tourism, and women empowerment in the tourism sector. She is also an advisor to the innovation and entrepreneurship student club and is experienced with local tourism development and women empowerment projects in a different part of Turkey.

Dr Cihan Cobanoglu is Interim Dean and the McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHRM) in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF), who also serves as the Director of the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation and Coordinator of International Programs for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He is a renowned hospitality and tourism technology expert. Dr Cobanoglu is a Fulbright Specialist commissioned by the Fulbright Commission (2018-2021). He is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) commissioned by Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Educational Institute of American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). He is the Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (JHTT) (Indexed in SSCI IF = 4.2), editor of the Journal of Global Business Insights (JGBI), Journal of Global Hospitality and Tourism (JGBI) and a coauthor of six books and 20+ conference proceedings.

David Coghlan is Professor Emeritus and Fellow Emeritus at the Trinity Business School, University of Dublin Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is author of over 200 articles and book chapters. Recent books include: Collaborative Inquiry for Organization Development and Change (Edward Elgar, 2021), Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization (5th ed. Sage 2019); Inside Organizations (Sage, 2016), and he is coeditor of the Sage Encyclopedia of Action Research (2014). He serves on the editorial advisory boards of several journals.

Sara Dolnicar is a Professor of Tourism at the University of Queensland (Australia). An expert in empirical measurement in the social sciences, she has applied her work primarily to tourism, but also to environmental volunteering, foster care, and public acceptance of water alternatives. She is currently developing and experimentally testing measures that trigger pro-environmental behavior in tourists. Professor Dolnicar is an elected Fellow of the Academy for the Social Sciences in Australia, the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, and the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE). She has been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Distinguished Researcher Award, and named the Slovenian Ambassador of Science, the highest honor the Republic of Slovenia bestows on expatriate Slovenian researchers in recognition of global excellence, impact, and knowledge transfer. Professor Dolnicar is currently the Coeditor in Chief of Annals of Tourism Research.

Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong received his PhD in Hotel and Tourism Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is an Associate Professor of Integrated Resort and Tourism Management at the University of Macau. His research interests include social media marketing, cognitive bias in gambling, as well as consumer and tourist psychology. He is keen on doing experimental research and has been invited to deliver workshops on experimental design. His publications appear in leading tourism and hospitality journals. He is also serving on the editorial board of renowned journals including International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, Tourism Management Perspectives, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, Journal of Vacation Marketing, and others. Moreover, he is serving as the secretary of Asia-Pacific CHRIE (a federation of International CHRIE).

Dr Martin Gannon is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh Business School. His recent work is diverse, underpinned by active interest in entrepreneurial philanthropy, family business, tourism development, and sustainability. To this end, he has a track record of publishing in leading international journals, including Business History Review, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, and Annals of Tourism Research.

Juanabel Genovart-Balaguer is Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Balearic Islands since 1998. She focuses her research on two fields, the management of social economy entities (since 2012) and bibliometric studies, mainly in the tourism field (since 2017). She is the main researcher of the research group “Economic and accounting aspects of social economy entities, non-profit entities and tourism sector entities” at the University of the Balearic Islands. She has lectured at congresses and published book chapters and articles in relevant journals in these fields such as the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Revista de Estudios Cooperativos (REVESCO) and CIRIEC-España Revista Jurídica de Economía Social y Cooperativa. She has participated in research projects related to the social economy and has won two research awards in the field.

C. Michael Hall is currently 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. Michael has long-standing teaching, publication, and research interests in tourism, regional development, global environmental change, social marketing, and sustainable development with particular emphasis on issues of place branding and resilience as well as conservation and environmental change; sustainable tourism and sustainable consumption; tourism policy, planning, and governance; and the use of tourism as an economic development and conservation mechanism. He is the author and editor of over 90 books as well as over 300 journal articles and 400 book chapters.

Dr Valeria Lo Iacono is an academic and researcher with a degree in tourism from the University of Venice and a PhD in cultural heritage from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Valeria has taught at the University of Bath, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Korea, and Cardiff Metropolitan University, in addition to working as a researcher in the University of Exeter. Valeria has also presented at the Royal Geographic Society on the topic of “Wayfinding,” a topic she is also published in. She has also presented at numerous other conferences. Valeria's other publications include research methods on Skype, cultural heritage, and tourism matters. Valeria is also the founder of Symondsresearch.com, which provides universities and companies worldwide with training course materials.

Andreas Kallmuenzer is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at Excelia Business School, La Rochelle, France, and holds a PhD in Management and a Habilitation in Business Administration from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Before his academic career, Andreas worked several years as an entrepreneur in the tourism industry. His research interests are the entrepreneurial attitudes and sustainability of SMEs and family firms, with a particular focus on the tourism and hospitality industry.

Dr Zilmiyah Kamble is currently working with James Cook University, Singapore, as a Senior lecturer in Hospitality and Tourism. She has a wealth of experience both in the tourism industry and academics that spans across five different countries. She is a qualitative researcher, and her diverse research interests include tourism planning, destination management, social cultural impacts or sociology of tourism, hospitality management, and qualitative research methodology. As a qualitative researcher she has supervised research in both hospitality and tourism related fields, drawing on her considerable industry experience and qualifications in hospitality and tourism. She has also consulted for the Seychelles Ministry of Tourism, and published research pertaining to tourism impacts, tourism development, as well as policy reviews of tourism development postwar in Sri Lanka.

Micol Mieli is a PhD candidate at Lund University, researching tourism and technology. After taking an undergraduate degree in law in Italy, she continued her studies with an MSc in Service Management at Lund University in Sweden, and she is now attending a PhD program in service studies. In her thesis, she writes about tourist information behavior and tourists' relationship with mobile technologies, in particular the smartphone, drawing from both the tourism field and philosophy of technology. Her focus is on exploring the role of different technologies in the contemporary tourist experience and how digital technologies are shaping tourism and tourists' information search behaviors. She also has a particular interest in epistemology and methodology, both in her research and teaching, adopting a pragmatic approach and using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Carles Mulet-Forteza lectures on accountancy subjects to under and postgraduate students at the Faculty of Tourism (University of the Balearic Islands). His first area of research was the analysis of tourism companies' management, and afterward he moved into a new research line focused on the analysis of nonprofit entities, and recently he started publishing bibliometric studies. Within these fields, he has published more than 100 documents, including more than 25 articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 20 book chapters. Among other journals he has published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Tourism Geographies, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Tourism Economics, and Tourism Geographies. He has also participated in competitive research projects on tourism and has been awarded twice in this field. He is board member of the Spanish Association of Experts in Tourism (AECIT).

Luana Nanu is a PhD candidate, and a presidential graduate research fellow, in the Hospitality Management Program at Auburn University. She also serves as the president for the Hospitality Graduate Association as well as the editorial assistant for the Journal of Global Hospitality and Tourism. Moreover, she serves as a project coordinator for the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation (M3 Center) at the University of South Florida. Her major research interest revolves around different aspects of consumer behavior with an emphasis on the physical environment in the hospitality industry.

Dr Denise O'Leary is Assistant Head of the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism at Technological University Dublin. Over the course of her career, as well as holding academic positions in Ireland and the US, she worked in the private sector in research and management consultancy. In her academic roles she has worked with stakeholders from diverse sectors, using action research and action learning to focus on interorganizational network dynamics, skills development, and the role of tourism in community development. Currently, as well as providing academic leadership, she teaches research methods and supervises PhD students in tourism and hospitality. She is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights and on the leadership team of the Next Tourism Generation Skills Alliance. She is an active member of the action research community and is on the executive committee of ARGI (Action Research Group Ireland).

Dr Mike Peters is Full Professor at the Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism Management at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He holds the chair of “SME and Tourism” focusing its research on small business development, family businesses, and entrepreneurship in tourism and leisure.

Tanja Petry is a doctoral student at the Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism Management at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and a marketing and quality management professional at a large nonprofit education provider. With a background in Organization Studies, her main research and teaching interests are in the areas of employer attractiveness and sustainable management.

Patricia Horrach-Rosselló is Lecturer at the Faculties of Tourism and Business and Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands from 1999. She is part of the research team of the Business Economics Department “Social and Environmental Accounting,” and her fields of study are Nonprofit Entities' Accounting, Social Responsibility, Social Accounting, and Bibliometrics, topics on which she has lectured at congresses and published books and scientific articles in journals such as CIRIEC España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa, Spanish Accounting Journal, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, and Economic Computation And Economic Cybernetics Studies And Research. She has been director and teacher at several postgraduate courses at the UIB. She's the Head of Studies and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Tourism at the UIB.

Mehmet Şeremet, PhD, is Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Maritime Transportation Management Engineering, Van Yuzuncu Yıl University, Turkey, and an editor of the Geographies, Planning & Tourism Studios, and coeditor of Turkish Geographical Review. His academic background includes both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Geography from Turkey and also a PhD from Plymouth University on GIS education in the UK and Turkey. His special interests include geographical and tourism education for a sustainable future, pedagogy and employability in GIS, and applied tourism planning and policy, especially in western and eastern Anatolia, where he leads a long-running sustainable tourism planning and policy project on the sustainable development of alternative tourism sites.

Siamak Seyfi is an Assistant Professor in Tourism Geography at the Geography Research Unit (GRU) of the University of Oulu, Finland. Using an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach, his research focuses on critical tourism geographies, tourism mobilities, ethical and political consumerism, sustainability, as well as qualitative sociological/ethnographic research methods in tourism. He has published in leading tourism and serves on the editorial boards of seven journals including Tourism Management Perspectives, Tourism Planning & Development, Journal of Heritage Tourism, and International Journal of Tourism Cities, among others.

Ismail Shaheer is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Tourism, University of Otago (New Zealand). He completed a PhD in tourism (University of Otago) and a Masters in Tourism Marketing (University of Surrey, UK). His research focuses on tourist behavior, ethics, social media, political and ethical consumerism. His recent works explored the influence of video games on tourism and the use of social media as a vehicle to call for destination boycotts to stop animal abuse. Before undertaking his doctorate, he worked at the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (now Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation) for more than 10 years marketing the Maldives as a tourist destination.

Fathimath Shiraani is a PhD candidate in the Department of Tourism, University of Otago. Her PhD focuses on exploring the holiday experiences of disabled children and young people. Her current research and publications primarily examine the intersections of tourism, disability, and childhood. Her work equally promotes children/disabled children's rights and child-centered methodologies and ethics. She has worked on research projects involving disabled children. She is currently engaged in a project aiming to develop children's responsible attitude to traveling. She also teaches undergraduate tourism students, including disabled students requiring additional support.

Dr Anna M. Stalmirska is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Service Sector Management at Sheffield Hallam University and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Following the completion of her PhD in 2018, she has presented at national and international conferences and published conference papers, journal articles, and book chapters focusing on food in destination marketing. Her research interests and expertise include food tourism, cultural globalization, destination marketing, and experiences of commuter students. She leads on several undergraduate and postgraduate modules focusing on marketing, management, and research methods while ensuring that teaching is underpinned by appropriate research and scholarly activity. Her research experience also includes supervision of undergraduate research projects, Master's Dissertations, and supervision of a PhD student.

Prof Babak Taheri is a Professor of Marketing at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has an established reputation in the marketing field with a specific expertise in services marketing management, consumer behavior and tourism, leisure, and cultural consumption. The innovative nature of his research traces to multidisciplinary work and to methodologically robust measurement and assessment of key concepts. He has published consistently in internationally rated top-tier journals with high-impact factors (over 100 academic publications) and held funds from bodies in the EU and UK such as Horizon 2020 and Innovate UK Research Grant – KTP. Prof. Taheri currently serves as Senior Editor for Tourism Management Perspectives and Associate Editor for: The Service Industries Journal and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. He also is on the editorial review board of several social science journals, including the Journal of Business Research and Journal of Travel Research.

Dr Barbara Tomasella is a Lecturer in Marketing at University of Derby and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research interests include social entrepreneurship, CSR, sustainability and social marketing, sustainable tourism and hospitality, and innovative qualitative research methodologies. Before joining Academia in 2014, Barbara worked for 15 years as a professional in sustainability marketing. This commitment was recently recognized when she was awarded a Fellowship of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. As part of this role, she acts as a mentor for young CSR industry professionals. Barbara presented her work in leading Business conferences such as the British Academy of Management and the European Academy of Management conferences. She serves as a reviewer for prestigious journals, such as Business and Society and International Journal of Hospitality Management.

Dr Edwin N. Torres is Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Prior to joining UCF he obtained a PhD in Hospitality Management from Purdue University. Dr Torres has work experience as a hotel manager, restaurant manager, hotel consultant, and investment advisor. His research interests lie in the areas of services marketing and human resource management. More specifically, Dr Torres has explored topics related to customer delight, value cocreation, purchase decision-making, the use of technology or employee selection, and the effects of various compensation and benefits programs. His research features a variety of research methods with an emphasis on qualitative studies. Dr Torres' research is widely published in multiple scholarly journals, book chapters, and magazine articles.

Dr JM Trapp-Fallon is Principal Lecturer in Cardiff School of Management and part of the Welsh Centre of Tourism Research, Cardiff Metropolitan University. She also contributes to tourism teaching and supervision at Assumption University, Thailand, as well as postgraduate supervision for UK universities and, as former lead for the MBA program, forged a wide-ranging network and experience from validations and moderation via collaborative partnerships overseas. Her PhD research sought out the hidden history of leisure use on the South Wales canals using an oral history approach and in so doing became convinced of the value of this research method for future discoveries about tourism, tourists, and their experiences. Exploring the value of oral history continues to fascinate her and she is an active member of the Oral History Society.