Contributors
Diana Guerra Amaya is a Colombian business administrator trained at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, Colombia, with twenty-five years of experience as an entrepreneurship consultant with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Latin America. She taught for five years at the Colombian Tourism and Hotel Management School. She is a co-founder of 5Bogota, a creative tourism alternative in Colombia, where she focuses on budget management and financial analysis, thus creating value and protecting corporate assets. She has led the group of hosts at 5Bogota for seven years, overseeing tours for over three thousand travellers. She is also a winning participant in social entrepreneurship contests through 5Bogota. Moreover, she is a co-author of the book Bogotá through the 5 Senses.
Keith Bradby, OAM, is a landscape restorationist and CEO of Gondwana Link, a large-scale connectivity conservation program in southwestern Australia. He is a former chair of the Western Australian Landcare Network.
Nancy Duxbury, PhD, is a senior researcher and coordinator of the transdisciplinary thematic line “Urban Cultures, Sociabilities and Participation” at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. She is also a member of the European Expert Network on Culture. Her research has examined creative tourism development in smaller places, cultural mapping, and culture in local sustainable development, among other topics. She was the principal investigator of “CREATOUR: Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas,” a national research-and-application project (2016–20) that catalyzed creative tourism pilot projects in small cities and rural areas across four regions of Portugal (Algarve, Alentejo, Centro, and Norte). She currently leads the European Commission–funded project “IN SITU: Place-Based Innovation of Cultural and Creative Industries in Non-urban Areas” (2022–26). Her most recent edited books are CREATOUR: Desenvolver Destinos de Turismo Criativo em Cidades de Pequena Dimensão e em Áreas Rurais (Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2020); Cultural Sustainability, Tourism and Development: (Re)articulations in Tourism Contexts (Routledge, 2021); and Creative Tourism: Cultural Resources and Engaging Creative Travellers (CABI, 2021).
Darcen Esau is a market researcher specializing in both consumer behavior and sensory evaluation, with over a decade of experience designing and implementing research studies. He completed his master’s at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, where he studied the sensory experience of wine and how this impacts consumer decision making. At the 13th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Darcen was selected as one of the top eleven early career researchers in sensory science. Darcen is part owner and head of research at TasteAdvisor, which developed a white-labelled wine tourism platform that helps wine regions recommend wine, wineries, events, and experiences, all based on an individual’s personal preferences. He also conducts consumer and market research studies on wine through his company, Terroir Consulting.
Mohammadreza Gohari is an Iranian tourism management/ecotourism graduate. His research concerns the impact of tourism, with a focus on socio-cultural and economic impacts.
Diana Marcela Zuluaga Guerra is a Colombian advertising professional trained at the Palermo University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a specialization in in creative entrepreneurship management from the Cordoba University, in Argentina. With seven years of experience in the tourism industry, she is a co-founder of 5Bogota, a creative tourism alternative in Colombia. She is experienced in public relations and in the creation of entrepreneurial networks through the conception and development of innovative tourism products. She is also a winning participant in social entrepreneurship contests through 5Bogota. Additionally, she is a co-author of the book Bogotá through the 5 Senses. She holds a master’s in planning and management in tourism systems from the University of Bergamo in Italy.
John S. Hull completed his PhD at McGill University in Montreal and currently works in the Faculty of Adventure, Culinary Arts and Tourism at Thompson Rivers University. He is also affiliated with Harz University of Applied Sciences in Wernigerode, Germany, the Sonnino Working Group in Tuscany, Italy, and the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute. John does research in economic geography and community-based tourism. His current research is focused on mountain/peripheral tourism, food/wine tourism, festivals/events, and health/wellness tourism. He presently serves on the Province of British Columbia’s Minister of Tourism Engagement Council.
Vid Kmetič is a walking city stories book, a software technician, and, since 2018, a member of the society Hiša! In Rajzefiber, he is mainly responsible for the development and preparation of new tourist products and is the program manager for the Festival of Walks. He also provides assistance in the preparation and implementation of the Living Courtyards, Lumina, and Elf Town. He has accumulated work experience in various fields, including the cultural. From 1997 to 2010, he participated in most of the excavations and archaeological inspections of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia—Maribor Regional Unit. Since 2015 he has authored more than forty articles about the past of Maribor, which he published as an ongoing column, “Once Upon a Time,” for the newspaper Večer. Vid is also author of two books, Fünfek vas ima rad, pa pohano tudi (Fünfek loves you—but breaded as well) and Mi, otroci socializma z našega dvorišča (Us, kids of socialism from our courtyard).
Attila Komlós holds an MSc in geography with a specialization in tourism management (University of Pécs, Hungary.). He has been working toward a PhD on issues of socio-economic activity at the University of Pécs. His current position is at the Duna-Drava National Park Directorate (Pécs, Hungary).
Katja Beck Kos studied cultural studies in Ljubljana, working for NGOs in Ljubljana and Maribor (among other roles, serving as the backbone for the internationally renowned choir Carmina Slovenica), trained in cultural management in Germany (three years of assistance of program director at Tanzhaus NRW in Düsseldorf and serving as Robert Bosch cultural manager). These experiences made her strong enough to return to Maribor on the verge of an economic crisis in 2010. She stayed. Working as a cultural producer and urban changer, she initiated a community-based art program for neglected spaces called Living Courtyards (part of ECOC Maribor 2012), co-founded the Living City initiative aimed at urban change, helped to establish a new program resident platform, GuestRoomMaribor, helped develop the nano-touristic program Rajzefiber, and initiated a regional travel academy of creative tourism, the PAKT. At the same time, she successfully maintained and steadily expanding the academy’s international network, including through collaborations with the Robert Bosch Alumni Network, TANDEM Cultural Managers Exchange, and as an active member of the Network Actors of Urban Change. She was nominated as personality of the year for Styria (region of Maribor), and her group Nanoturizem won the BIO50 Award. She remains curious and in love with her region.
Donald Lawrence, professor (BFA, University of Victoria, 1986; MFA, York University, 1988), teaches in the Visual Arts program at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC. In both the creation and dissemination of his artistic works, Lawrence merges traditional and experimental/performative practices to investigate two broad areas of interest: (1) the meeting place of urban and wilderness cultures, with particular interests in the ocean environment and the culture of recreational sea kayaking, and (2) pre-photographic optical apparatuses, particularly the early projection device of the camera obscura. Lawrence was the lead researcher of the SSHRC-funded Camera Obscura Project (2013–19), in which a group of artists, scholars, and students realized the 2015 Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Festival in Dawson City, Yukon, followed by a travelling exhibition in partnership with the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery. Donald Lawrence has received the Distinguished Researcher and Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards from Thompson Rivers University and has received the inaugural Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in Humanities from the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Sylvia M. Leighton is a farmer and ecological researcher from the south coast of Western Australia. She has a deep commitment to incorporating wildlife conservation and healthy soil systems back into commercial regenerative agricultural farming systems in Australia. Wilyun Pools Farm won the WA State Landcare Farmers Award in 2021 and the Australian National Landcare Farmers Award in 2022.
Alison Lullfitz is a biologist living on and managing a conservation property in the Fitz-Stirling area. Dr. Lullfitz undertakes collaborative post-doctoral research in Noongar plant conservation and land management in southwestern Australia.
Moira A. L. Maley is an Australian education / ecotourism academic with a life-long interest in transformative learning in multiple settings, from medical education to understanding landscapes.
Courtney W. Mason is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Rural Livelihoods and Sustainable Communities at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. His work examines locally driven initiatives in rural and Indigenous communities that enhance regional food security and tourism development. His research on parks and protected areas informs public policy on land use management frameworks and conservation practices. He is the author of Spirits of the Rockies: Reasserting an Indigenous Presence in Banff National Park (University of Toronto Press, 2014) and the co-editor of A Land Not Forgotten: Indigenous Food Security and Land-Based Practices of Northern Ontario (University of Manitoba Press, 2017).
Una McMahon-Beattie is professor and head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ulster University (UK). Her research interests include tourism futures, tourism and event marketing, and revenue management. Una is co-editor of Channel View’s Tourism Futures series and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Tourism Futures. She is the author/editor of a number of books, including The Future Past of Tourism: Historical Perspectives and Future Evolutions (Channel View Publications, 2019).
Mateja Meh received her bachelor’s degree in science from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (University of Maribor), where she studied media communications. As an undergraduate, she was part of the organizing team for the international student film festival Student Cuts. Between 2014 and 2016 she was head of public relations at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. During that time, she became part of the organization team for Tedx Maribor, where she served as head of public relations and executive producer. After leaving her job in the faculty she worked briefly as a journalist at one of the country’s biggest newspapers, Večer. In the last four years she has worked on such projects as the Festival of Walks, Living Courtyards (Festival Lent), and Elf Town, serving as executive producer for the latter event’s inaugural 2019 edition. From 2017 to 2019 she helped with the Creative Europe–funded project LUCity. She is also a mentor to young people joining Hiša! through different Erasmus+ programs.
Emese Panyik is assistant professor in tourism at the Catholic University of Portugal, Braga Regional Centre, and a member of the Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy Research Unit (GOVCOPP) of the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She holds a PhD in tourism management from the University of Aveiro. She has a decade of teaching experience in tourism management. Her research interests include local governance and stakeholder relations in tourism, EU tourism policy, and thematic tourism routes.
Carol Pettersen, OAM, is a Menang Ngadju Noongar Elder from Albany, Western Australia. She grew up on her family’s home country in a traditional Noongar family, and culture is central to all aspects of her life. She works to empower her people and to build sustainable pathways for Aboriginal people, including as an adviser to the Western Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet. In her retirement, Carol continues to work in a voluntary capacity on land-care issues utilizing her traditional knowledge.
André Luis Quintino Principe is an independent researcher with a focus on themes connected to cultural associations, creative industries from the cultural sector, and their role in creative tourism. He is currently an IT coordinator at the Brazilian company Vector Two Technology. He holds a bachelor of laws from São Judas Tadeu University (São Paulo). He earned a postgraduate certificate in project management from New York University, and has more than twenty years of experience in the business field as a senior consultant. He has recently completed an MSc in innovation economics and management from the University of Porto. He is the proud father of his newest project, named Miguel.
Meng Qu holds a PhD from Hiroshima University and is an associate professor in the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, Japan, and co-convener at the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative. He is a board member of CREATOUR International. His research draws from interdisciplinary perspectives, especially creative tourism, geography, and rural and island studies, particularly in East Asia. His work emphasizes socially engaged rural art festivals, interactive aesthetics, sustainability, and community revitalization.
Donna Senese earned a PhD in geography at the University of Waterloo before moving to the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, where she is now an associate professor of geography at the University of British Columbia—Okanagan Campus, and associate dean of students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dr. Senese has research and curricular interests in the geographies of rural tourism and development at the intersection of sustainability, vulnerability, and resilience thinking. Dr. Senese is a member of UBC’s Centre for Environmental Impact Assessment, the UBC Graduate Studies Sustainability Theme, the UBC Wine Research Centre, Kwantlan Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, and is founding director of the Sonnino Working Group, an international trans-disciplinary research and writing collective with curricular and research interests in food and wine tourism and rural sustainability.
Kathleen Scherf holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia. She is professor of communication at Thompson Rivers University in Canada. Most recently, her edited volume Creative Tourism in Smaller Communities: Place, Culture, and Local Representation was published by the University of Calgary Press in 2021. Also in that year, she published chapters in Nancy Duxbury, Sara Albino, and Cláudia Carvalho’s Creative Tourism: Cultural Resources and Engaging Creative Travellers (CABI, 2021).
M. Jane Thompson is a botanic artist, nurse, and citizen-scientist in spider and floral projects for the Queensland Museum and Herbarium. She and husband Bill owned Yarraweyah Falls and completed a 100-hectare biodiversity carbon sequestration restoration as part of Gondwana Link. They now run boutique ecotourism visits.
Spencer J. Toth is a 2SLGBTQI+ tourism and diversity, equity & inclusion professional based in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. He is passionate about the tourism sector and its role in rural community economic development. Spencer holds a BBA honours in marketing and entrepreneurship from Simon Fraser University and an MSc from the Erasmus Mundus European Master in Tourism Management program (jointly offered by the University of Southern Denmark, University of Ljubljana, and University of Girona).
Josie V. Vayro is a behavioural ecologist, primatologist, wildlife researcher, and social scientist with twenty years of international and national experience working in Asia, West Africa, and Canada. Her education and career are highly multidisciplinary, having earned a bachelor’s of environmental studies, a master’s of science in environmental biology, a PhD in biological anthropology, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in human-wildlife interactions, Indigenous food security, and wildlife conservation. Josie is currently the wildlife research lead at Bailey Environmental Consulting, where she oversees and supports a variety of wildlife-related projects.
Johannes E. Wajon is an environmental and water-treatment scientist who has spent more than thirty years trying to protect and restore the environment. He and his wife, Donna, were the first buyers of land in the Gondwana Link project. Dr. Wajon is currently the national conservation officer for the Australian Native Plants Society Australia. He is a photographer and the self-publisher of books on Western Australian wildflowers.
Ian Yeoman is a professor of innovation, disruption, and new phenomena at NHL Stenden Hotel School in the Netherlands. Ian holds visiting professorships at Victoria University of Wellington and Ulster University. Dr. Yeoman is co-editor of the Journal of Tourism Futures and co-editor of Channel View’s Tourism Futures series. Author and editor of over twenty books, including Scenario Planning and Tourism Futures and Global Scenarios for World Tourism. Outside the future, Ian is a keen photographer and Sunderland AFC football fan.
Simona Zollet holds a PhD from Hiroshima University, where she is an assistant professor in the Department of Academia-Government-Industry Collaboration and a USASBE research fellow. Her doctoral research examined sustainability transitions in agri-food systems through organic and agro-ecological farming and alternative rural lifestyles in Italy and Japan. She believes in the importance of social entrepreneurship and small business creation, particularly in the areas of sustainable farming and food systems, and of leveraging local culture in the creation of resilient and sustainable rural futures.