Dr. Seyhmuş Baloğlu (seyhmus.baloglu@unlv.edu), University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

Dr. Deepak Chhabra (Deepak.chhabra@asu.edu), Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

Deepak Chhabra is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA. She also serves as a Global Futures Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on the socio-economic impacts of tourism, the sustainable management and marketing of culture and heritage, transformative paradigms in tourism, authenticity and authentication of heritage, and the development of smart and sustainable marketing strategies that foster social, cultural, and economic equity in local, regional, and global communities.

Dr. Chhabra serves on the editorial boards of several leading journals in the fields of tourism, hospitality, and heritage studies. She has authored more than sixty articles in peer-reviewed journals and has written and edited numerous books. Her first book, which focuses on the sustainable marketing of cultural and heritage tourism, has received international recognition from both scholars and practitioners. The sustainable marketing model introduced in this work has been adopted as a blueprint by cultural and heritage institutions, as well as government agencies, around the world. In 2024, she co-edited the volume Sustainable Development and Resilience of Tourism. This volume examines advancements in the sustainable and resilient development of niche tourism sectors through the lens of health and well-being.

Since Fall 2025, she has served as Book Series Editor for Routledge’s Marketing of Tourism and Heritage Industries/Spaces series. In recognition of her scholarly contributions, she recently received her school’s Excellence in Research Award.

Dr. Ender Demir (enderd@ru.is), Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland

Ender Demir is a Professor of Finance at Reykjavik University, Iceland. He received his PhD in Business from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. His research focuses on corporate finance, sustainable finance, cryptocurrency markets, tourism economics, and hospitality finance. His work has been published in leading international journals across finance, economics, and tourism. He also serves in several editorial roles and is actively involved in conference organization.

Dr. Jaume Guia (jaume.guia@udg.edu), University of Girona, Girona, Spain

Jaume Guia is Professor of Tourism Governance and Global Justice at the University of Girona. His teaching and supervision bridge tourism studies, global studies and international higher education, with a particular focus on justice, transformation and regenerative futures. He leads ONIT, Ontological Nomadism and Inclusive Transformations, a University of Girona research group dedicated to rethinking mobility, hospitality and territorial change through relational and posthumanist approaches. His work examines tourism as a field of encounter, world-making, vulnerability and regeneration, drawing on posthumanist ethics, new materialism, decolonial thought and situated justice. His recent publications, appearing in Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Geographies and Tourism Recreation Research, address justice tourism, cosmopolitan hospitality, rurality, assemblages, vulnerability, research impact and regenerative tourism futures.

Dr. Sedigheh Moghavvem (sedigheh@um.edu.my)

Dr. Sedigheh Moghavvemi is an Associate Professor at Universiti Malaya, specializing in Entrepreneurship and Technology Adoption. She holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship and has extensive academic and research experience in the fields of technology management, the future of work, tourism management, and sustainable tourism.

Dr. Moghavvemi has successfully supervised more than 60 PhD and Master’s students, reflecting her strong commitment to academic mentorship and research excellence. Her interdisciplinary research integrates both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to address contemporary challenges and generate impactful contributions that support sustainable development, societal well-being, and global economic progress.

Dr. Mary Mostafanezhad (mostafan@hawaii.edu), University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA

Dr. Gyan Nyaupane (gyan@asu.edu), Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

Dr. Gyan Nyaupane is a Professor and Interim Director of the Center for Sustainable Tourism at Arizona State University. He is also affiliated with the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation as a Senior Global Futures Scientist. He has held multiple leadership positions at ASU. He served as the Associate Dean of Research in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, overseeing a multidisciplinary research enterprise with 20 research centers.  He also served as the Graduate Program Director in the School for 10 years, during which he led the establishment and expansion of the Ph.D. program.  

Professor Nyaupane’s research focuses on sustainable tourism, parks and protected areas, community resilience, and sustainable development. The quality of his work has earned him a national and international reputation, particularly for his work on linkages between communities and conservation through sustainable tourism. He has published 3 edited books, 62 peer-reviewed papers, and 18 book chapters. His papers have been published in top-tier tourism journals, including Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and Tourism Geographies. His research has been instrumental in envisioning and planning policies for federal, state, tribal, and local land management agencies in Asia, Africa, South America, and the USA.

Professor Nyaupane currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Tourism Review International. He is a fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences.

Dr. Greg Richards (g.w.richards@tilburguniversity.edu), Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands

Greg Richards is Professor of Placemaking and Events at Breda University and Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Tilburg in The Netherlands. He has worked on projects for numerous national governments, national tourism organisations and municipalities, and he has extensive experience in tourism and leisure research and education. His recent books include the SAGE Handbook of New Urban Studies, Small Cities with Big Dreams: Creative Placemaking and Branding Strategies and Rethinking Cultural Tourism. He is currently working on an EU Horizon Project, Crocus: Cultural and Creative Tourism in Rural and Remote Areas.

Dr. Jarkko Saarinen (Jarkko.Saarinen@oulu.fi), University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Jarkko Saarinen is a Professor of Human Geography at University of Oulu, Finland. He also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Currently, he is the Director of the Frontiers of Arctic and Global Resilience (FRONT) Research Program at the University of Oulu. His research interests include sustainability and tourism development, tourism-community relations, resilience and climate change adaptation, political ecology and community-based natural resource management. His recent publications include co-authored and co-edited books: Tourism and Communities (2026, Routledge), Handbook on Tourism Governance (2025, Elgar), Climate Change and Tourism in Southern Africa (2022, Routledge), Southern African Perspectives in Sustainable Tourism Management (2022, Springer). Currently he serves as an Editor for Tourism Geographies and Associate Editor for Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Ecotourism, and Development Southern Africa. He is also a co-editor for Springer Book Series on Geographies of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change.

Dr. Dallen J. Timothy (dtimothy@asu.edu), Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

Dallen J. Timothy, PhD, is Professor of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University and Senior Global Futures Scientist, at the Julie Anne Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. In addition to being Director of the Center for Tourism and Hospitality Research Center at Khazar University, he is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Visiting Research Professor at Ningxia University, China; Guest Professor in the Erasmus European Master of Tourism Management Program based at the University of Girona, Spain; and Honorary Professor at the University of Jordan in Amman. Professor Timothy is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Heritage Tourism and is commissioning editor of Routledge’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism book series, and co-commissioning editor over three book series at Channel View Publications. He also serves on the editorial boards of 24 international social science journals and is a senior editor of Tourism Geographies. He has published more than 40 books and over 300 articles and chapters on many aspects of tourism. He has ongoing research projects in North America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa on tourism topics related to heritage, religious travel, geopolitics and borders, globalization, marginal spaces and marginalized people, ethnic cultures, community development, and personal identity. He is a Fellow of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Academy and was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association for Tourism Policy, as well as the John Rooney Award (American Association of Geographers-RTS) for ‘outstanding contributions to the field and discipline of applied recreation, tourism and sport geography’ and the Roy Wolfe Award (American Association of Geographers-RTS) for ‘outstanding contribution to the field of tourism geography’.

Dr. Kyle Woosnam (Woosnam@uga.edu), University of Georgia, Athens, USA

Kyle Maurice Woosnam, Ph.D. is a professor within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. His research examines social and environmental change from outside forces (i.e., natural hazards, development, and visitors) —focusing often at either the regional or community levels. As such, he undertakes research on the former from an urban and regional planning perspective and the latter from a sustainable community tourism management and planning perspective. Dr. Woosnam's research has taken place in over 30 countries and has resulted in 200+ journal articles. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ecotourism, Associate Editor of Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and sits on 14 additional journal editorial boards.