Top Tourism Professor joins Bournemouth University

Page published: 26 January 2012

Professor Stephen J Page joins BU’s School of Tourism.

Bournemouth University (BU) welcomes internationally-renowned Professor Stephen J Page, who has joined our School of Tourism on 1 January.

Stephen’s previous credentials include Senior Professor in Sustainable Tourism Management at London Metropolitan University, Scottish Enterprise Professor of Tourism Management at University of Stirling and Professor and Director of the Centre for Tourism Research at Massey University in New Zealand. He has extensive experience of consultancy and policy advice across the globe with organisations such as the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), VisitScotland, OECD and many public and private sector bodies including Harrahs Casino as developer of Auckland’s Sky Tower.

Stephen has written and co-authored a total of 35 books on leisure and tourism since 1994 and is ranked as one of the top tourism academics in the UK based on publications and citations for a 5 year period (2003-2008). He co-edits the world’s leading academic journal in the field, ‘Tourism Management’. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Tourism in 2010 for his work on tourism education and research.

He is on editorial boards of many of the key academic journals in tourism and has edited and commissioned many of the leading research monographs in tourism published by Elsevier and Routledge. His most recent publication – published last month – The Handbook of Events (co-edited with Dr Joanne Connell at University of Exeter and published by Routledge) is the first major research study mapping out the development and future direction of event research worldwide.

Upon joining BU, Stephen commented: “It seemed the natural career choice to join a School that has been on an upward trajectory in research with many of the leading scholars in the field and a critical mass of researchers and like minded individuals.  Above all, the University offered a clear direction for me to assist with its research ambitions, most notably with the upcoming REF in 2014.

“What many colleagues will also be unaware of is I have a long term fondness of Bournemouth as I started a postdoctoral post in 1988 in the School prior to really launching my own career in tourism education and research at Christ Church College Canterbury.  So it is a very welcome move back to where some of my early interest in tourism developed.”

Dr Keith Wilkes, Dean of BU’s School of Tourism, said: “Stephen’s return is a very welcome addition to the School’s Professoriate where he will be able to bring his extensive research and academic publishing experience to bear on advancing the School’s research strategy.”