ANTE MANDIĆ, Course leader
Dr. Ante Mandić is an assistant professor of sustainable tourism at the Faculty of economics, business and tourism, University of Split, Croatia. He is also an affiliated faculty at the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University, and an external examiner at the Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherland. He serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Ecotourism, and the Executive Committee member and coordinator of Knowledge development at the International Union for Conservation of Nature – World Commission for Protected Areas TAPAS. His teaching and research predominately focus on sustainable tourism development in nature-based destinations. He has published a number of academic papers and book chapters. His books were published with Springer Nature, Routledge, and Edward Elgar. Dr. Mandić has extensive experience working as a researcher or educator on international projects founded by INTERREG MEDITERRANEAN and the HORIZON 2020 program. He sought advice from various organizations including the Ministry of Tourism in Croatia for developing a scenario-based plan for sustainable tourism until 2030, and the Institute for Tourism Zagreb, Croatia for creating an Environmental Satellite Account and a framework of indicators to monitor the sustainability of tourism development. Personal web page: https://antemandic.com/
LIDIJA PETRIĆ
Lidija Petrić is a Full professor at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism University of Split, Croatia. As either a project manager or/and a researcher she participated in several scientific projects funded by the Croatian Ministry of Science as well as on EU funded projects. Prof. Petrić was a leader of the team from the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism (University of Split, Croatia) on the HORIZON 2020 SmartCulTour project, whose aim is to support regional development in the European regions with important tangible and intangible cultural assets, including those located in rural peripheries and the urban fringe, through sustainable cultural tourism. She also participated as an expert in the projects funded by UNDP, GEF, WWF, UNEP’s PAP/RAC, and was involved as a researcher/consultant or project manager in a number of development studies from the local up to the national level. The main areas of her scientific interest are economic and developmental effects of tourism, tourist destination management/planning and cultural tourism management. She is a member of the European Regional Scientists Association, the Scientific Committee for Tourism at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Croatian UNESCO National Committee.
KO KOENS
Ko Koens is a Professor of New Urban Tourism at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam, who has been involved in sustainable tourism for nearly twenty years. His work focuses on sustainable urban tourism with an emphasis on new urban tourism, overtourism, city hospitality and tourism of inequalities (slum tourism). He is an author of the UNWTO report on overtourism, and editor of the books “Slum Tourism: Poverty, Power and Ethics” and “Tourism and Geographies of Inequality: The New Global Slumming Phenomenon”. He managed multiple European research projects (JPI Urban Europe, H2020, European Commission) and is currently involved in the project ‘SmartCulTour), which involves create a more sustainable development of cultural tourism.
JAN VAN DER BORG
Jan van der Borg teaches Tourism Economics and Management at KU Leuven (BE) and Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy, where he coordinates the master’s degree courses in Tourism. Moreover, he is managing director of the European Institute of Comparative Urban Research (EURICUR). He has a PhD in Regional and Urban Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Building further on his dissertation on tourism development in Venice, the conditions to achieve sustainable urban tourism in support of inclusive social and economic development in cities, have been a recurring theme in most of his publications.
SMILJANA PIVČEVIĆ
Smiljana Pivčević is the Vice-dean for Education and a Full Professor of Tourism at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism. Her research is focused on sustainability in tourism, tourism innovation and event tourism. tourism and economics. As expert and team leader Prof. Pivčević of international and regional scientific and operative projects, most notable being: Horizon 2020 SmartCulTour project - Smart Cultural Tourism as a Driver of Sustainable Development of European Regions, BLUTOURSYSTEM - Knowledge platform, skills and creative synergies for blue tourism ecosystem development, ERDF MED 2014 -2020 Programm- ShapeTourism - New shape and drives for the tourism sector: supporting decision, integrating plans and ensuring sustainability, Strategy of tourism development of Dalmatinska zagora, and Strategic marketing plan for destination Split. As a member of academic community, she has been honored with multiple awards for her outstanding contributions to teaching and scientific endeavors.
SEYYED MOSTAFA RASOOLIMANESH
S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh is a Professor of Tourism and Director of Sustainable Tourism Lab / Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), and Head of Research for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, in Taylor's University. His research interest areas contain sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, community participation, residents’ perceptions, and urban sustainability. Moreover, he has used advanced quantitative analysis such as partial least squares - structural equation modeling in many of his papers. He has published more than 150 articles including publications in high impact journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, International Journal of Contemporaneity Hospitality Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, and International Journal of Tourism Research among others. Mostafa is an editorial board member of more than 20 reputed tourism and hospitality journals, and he serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, and Regional Editor Asia for the Service Industries Journal and International Journal of Tourism Policy.
ANNA TORRES-DELGADO
Anna Torres-Delgado is a lecturer and researcher in the field of tourism and sustainability to destination planning and management, and her area of expertise is the development of sustainable tourism indicators. Her doctoral thesis was distinguished with the extraordinary doctoral prize of the academic year 2012/13 at the University of Barcelona, and awarded with the Environment Award (2015) of the Government of Catalonia in the category of research, innovation and development. Currently, she is a member of the discussion panel on Tourism at Barcelona City Council, as an expert in sustainable tourism to support the government on its municipal action (2016-present). She has published several scientific articles and book chapters, attended more than 20 international and national conferences in tourism geography and sustainability and led two editions of the Smart Tourism Congress Barcelona (CETT-UB, 2016 and 2018, Barcelona).
METIN KOZAK
Metin Kozak is a Dean & Professor at Kadir Has University. He is involved in several tourism-based national and international research projects, particularly with my partners based in Europe and the US. Prof. Kozak published a wider range of articles in top-tier journals, conference papers in more than 40 countries and books released by Elsevier, Routledge, CABI, Emerald, Springer, Goodfellow, and Edward Elgar, among others. Prof. Kozak is the co-editor of Anatolia and serves as an editorial board member of over 20 journals. His research interests entail marketing and consumer behavior in an interdisciplinary context.
IRIS KERST
Iris Kerst is Program Manager of both the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam and the Sustainable Urban Tourism Expertise Network. Within these roles, she tries to connect researchers, students, entrepreneurs, businesses and citizens in order to develop solutions in the field of sustainable urban tourism.
LJUDEVIT PRANIĆ
Ljudevit Pranić is an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism at University of Split. He holds a PhD in Business Administration/Tourism and a Master in Tourism & Hospitality Management degree, both from Temple University (Philadelphia, USA). Ljudevit has advised a number of managers to facilitate innovative business policy and practice in the U.S. (Independence National Historic Park, The National Park Service, The U.S. Department of the Interior), Moldova (The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD] TurnAround Management [TAM] and Business Advisory Services [BAS] Program), and Croatia (National Association of Small and Family-Run Hotels of Croatia). He was the founder of CroatiaPASS, a company that produced and sold discounted ticket packages to top tourist attractions accross Croatia. Ljudevit has been actively involved in several impactful projects; SEA-EU Rethinking tourism in the Mediterranean, Feasibility Study for Partial Concession of the Port of Split and Development Strategy of the City of Split Until 2030. Recognized for his outstanding contributions, Prof. Pranić has received numerous awards for teaching and research.
DAVORKA MIKULIĆ
Dr. Davorka Mikulić is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, University of Split. Her main research interest is in the field of culture heritage management, cultural tourism, destination marketing and economics of travel and tourism. She has been teaching in the area of higher education for more than 15 years. She has published scientific papers in the field of tourism development with special attention to cultural tourism development and destination marketing. She has also been involved in the development of national and international research projects