Browse our team of leading tourism experts
The Griffith Institute for Tourism brings together research staff across a broad range of specialty areas including planning, marketing, property and investment, technology, architecture, economics, climate change and more.
To find out more about our staff and academic members’ individual research strengths and research supervision, follow the links to their Griffith Experts profiles.

Professor Christopher Flemming
Director
Areas of expertise:
Economic, environmental and social impact assessment, project and/or policy evaluation, non-market valuation, survey design and implementation, empirical analysis of determinants of subjective wellbeing

Dr Sarah Gardiner
Deputy Director
Areas of expertise:
Destination marketing and development, Consumer behaviour and market analysis, tourism, economic and event development strategies.
Research leaders
Researchers
Dr Margarida Abreu Novais
Destination competitiveness, event management and experiential learning.
Professor Charles Arcodia
Event management practices, tourism management education and cultural heritage management.
Associate Professor Jay Bandaralage
General equilibrium modeling, input-output economics and economic development in South Asia.
Professor Susanne Becken
Sustainable tourism, consumer behavior and carbon footprint.
Andrew Buckwell
Research Fellow. Non-market valuation of ecosystem services, social benefit-cost analysis, discourse analysis with Q-method and climate change adaptation.
Associate Professor Andreas Chai
Innovation and demand, evolutionary economics, tourism economics and behavioural barriers to climate change adaption.
Associate Professor Alexandra Coghlan
Sustainable tourism, consumer behaviour, experience design, gamification, tourism and national parks, reef tourism and community-based tourism.
Dr Debbie Cotterell
Sustainable Tourism.
Dr Peiyi Ding
Chinese relations, environmental audits and tourism management in China.
Dr Maria Dharmesti
Marketing, sustainable tourism and hospitality management and Indonesian tourism.
Dr Jason Doyle
Sport and event consumer behaviour, strategic marketing and branding, and the impact of consumption on social-psychological well-being.
Associate Professor Karine Dupre
Tourism and cities, placemaking, design solving, sustainability and resilience, experience and heritage.
Associate Professor Kevin Filo
Synergy between sport and charity, sport events, and community sport and fundraising.
Professor Christopher Fleming
Economic, environmental and social impact assessment, project and/or policy evaluation, non-market valuation, survey design and implementation, empirical analysis of determinants of subjective wellbeing.
Dr Sarah Gardiner
Destination marketing and development, tourism, economic and event development strategies, consumer behaviour and market analysis.
Dr Michelle Hayes
Athlete social media use, social media facilitation of support networks among athletes, sport organisation management of social media, and portrayals of women athletes in new media.
Dr Aaron Hsiao
Cross-cultural management, internal marketing and organisational citizenship behavior, and special interest tourism.
Dr Xin (Cathy) Jin
Event management, convention tourism and destination marketing.
Dr Millicent Kennelly
Stakeholder engagement and collaboration in event management, event leveraging strategies and sport event management.
Associate Professor Catheryn Khoo
Consumer behaviour (tourists and guests), services marketing and qualitative research methods.
Dr Anna Kralj
Human resource management in hospitality and tourism, service management and operations, employee attitudes and organisational climate perceptions.
Dr Anna Kwek
Tourism/leisure theories, social-psychology in tourism/leisure and tourist gaze.
Associate Professor Leonie Lockstone-Binney
Event and tourism volunteering, volunteering legacies, event studies, event management education and commemorative events.
Johanna Loehr
Tourism and climate change, sustainable tourism, systems thinking and South Pacific tourism.
Associate Professor Brent Moyle
Experience design and innovation Destination Development, Regional Innovation and Sustainability, Tourism Experience and Immersive Technology.
Dr Athula Naranpanawa
Computable general equilibrium modeling, environmental and resource economics and development economics.
Dr Rawan Nimri
Consumerism and behavior change, pro-environmental communication and hospitality employment relations.
Dr Helen Perkins
Environmentally and socially sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing, sustainable tourism and consumer behavior.
Associate Professor Tien Duc Pham
Tourism satellite accounts, computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling technique, and economic impact analysis.
Associate Professor Catherine Prentice
Services marketing, relationship marketing and casino marketing.
Dr Jamie Ranse
Public health, emergency and in-event health services for mass gatherings.
Associate Professor Sacha Reid
Event stakeholder management, community development and planning, and real estate and property development.
Dr Caroline Riot
Elite athlete development and management, Olympic studies, community sports development, women and sport studies, health and physical activity promotion.
Associate Professor Tapan Sarker
Socio-economic impacts of climate change, sustainable business, stakeholder engagement and energy and environmental economics.
Dr Aishath Shakeela
Sustainable tourism; tourism management; and small island tourism destinations
Bojana Spasojevic Sijacki
Tourism and air transport management, stakeholder engagement, air route development and passenger experiences.
Dr Jen-Je Su
Econometrics, growth and development economics, and financial economics.
Dr Fitalew Taye
Research Fellow. Environmental and resource economics, environmental valuation and discrete choice modelling.
Dr Park Thaichon
Relationship marketing, tourism marketing, marketing management, digital marketing, technology and consumer behaviour.
Dr Sera Vada
Positive psychology and tourist-behaviour studies, destination marketing and diversification of tourist markets, organizational behaviour, tourism in Small Island Developing States, challenges of tourism development in the Pacific, sustainable tourism and Chinese tourism.
Dr Christopher Warren
Sustainable hospitality, intelligent systems for sustainable tourism, energy, water and waste in hotels/tourist accommodation, guest participation in sustainable tourism experiences, carbon emission reduction and hospitality management.
Dr Ying Wang
Destination marketing and management, hospitality management and Chinese outbound tourism.
Dr Ross Westoby
Research Fellow. International development, sustainable livelihoods and climate change adaptation.
Associate Professor Michelle Whitford
Event and tourism policy and planning, Indigenous tourism and events, and sustainable events.
Dr Emma Whittlesea
Climate change policy, community and stakeholder engagement, carbon footprint modelling and sustainable destination management.
Dr Elaine Yang
Gender studies, Asian tourism, tourism geography, tourist risk perception and qualitative research methods.
Discover our higher degree research candidates
We support over 30 HDR students and their research work across the tourism industry.
Adjunct staff
- Adjunct Professor Heidi Dahles
- Adjunct Professor Larry Dwyer
- Adjunct Professor Leo Jago OAM
- Adjunct Industry Fellow Don Morris AO
- Adjunct Professor Jaume Rossello-Nadal
- Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Robin Nunkoo
- Adjunct Professor David Simmons
Professional staff
- Serena Gent