Editorial

Citation

Volo, S. (2017), "Editorial", International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 109-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCTHR-04-2017-0050

A message from the new Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

It is a great honor to serve as the new Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research (IJCTHR). As this new path starts, I wish to acknowledge two outstanding scholars who supported my involvement with the journal. I am grateful to Professor Arch Woodside, one of the Founding Editors, who assertively advocated for my contribution to the journal and to Professor Andreas Zins, the previous Editor-in-Chief, who patiently assisted me in the transition phase. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to the two associate editors – Prof Scott McCabe and Prof Ken Hyde – and to the members of the editorial board for their dedication to the journal during the past years. Thanks to the commitment of the past editors and of their editorial team members, the journal has reached a healthy number of submissions, a good international readership and a loyal set of ad hoc reviewers.

IJCTHR is now moving into a new stage of its development. As an emerging source in Thomson Reuters Emerging Sources Citation Index, the journal is witnessing an increase in downloads, citations and submissions. The journal seeks to become a well-established platform for novel, relevant and rigorous contributions in the field of culture, tourism and hospitality research. The challenge of bringing IJCTHR to the high ranks in our field lays on everyone in the scientific community.

An energetic and insightful leadership is certainly essential. In light of this, I am pleased to closely work with the two new associate editors: Prof Donna Quadri-Felitti and Prof Noel Scott. Their enthusiasm and dedication will play a significant role in the development of the journal. Donna Quadri-Felitti has remarkable academic and industry experience in the field of hospitality and tourism, and she is currently the Director of the School of Hospitality Management at Penn State (USA). Noel Scott is currently Deputy Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University (Australia), and he has an extensive international scholarly experience in tourism as author, reviewer, editor, advisor and mentor. The experienced and committed support of Donna and Noel will enhance the quality of the journal by facilitating the identification of novel and relevant contributions.

Several initiatives are going to be designed and implemented to further increase the journal performances. To improve the articles’ impact and citation numbers, the publisher will enable free access to a selected number of manuscripts, allowing our authors to benefit from a larger readership. Some structural changes will be undertaken. Authors – emerging or well established – will find in the journal an outlet for sound theoretical and empirical research contributions, thorough literature reviews, relevant research notes and case studies, critical viewpoints and commentaries. To reflect the multidisciplinary nature of our field, an expansion of the editorial board is underway. This change will also guarantee a more timely review process and ensure consistency, relevance and rigor in the reviewing process. Thus, the journal is going to welcome talented scholars in our community who want to join the editorial board. On our side, we also have a great publication staff at Emerald; indeed, committed to the journal’s growth, Emerald has shown support for an informed process of reshaping the aim and scope of IJCTHR, which the new team of editors is currently planning.

The journal’s assets to thrive are clearly established: our authors, reviewers, associate editors and publication staff. A number of improvements have been successfully initiated under my predecessors, and I look forward to the next three years as Editor-in-Chief of IJCTHR to ensure relevance and rigor of manuscripts and to provide a fresh and critical turn to the journal’s direction. The new editorial team is committed to the journal’s success and welcomes contributions from the academic community to make IJCTHR a distinctive outlet in our scholarly field of culture, tourism and hospitality research.