Melanie Kay Smith
Dr Melanie Kay Smith (PhD) is an Associate Professor, Researcher and Consultant whose work focuses on urban planning, cultural tourism, wellness tourism experiences and the relationship between tourism and wellbeing. She is currently based in Budapest University of Economics and Business in Hungary and has also lectured in the UK, Estonia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She was Chair of the international organisation ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research) for 7 years and is now Chair of the ATLAS Advisory Board as well as being on the Advisory Board of Trinet. She has been an invited Keynote speaker at conferences in many countries worldwide and has undertaken consultancy work for ETC/UNWTO. She is the author or editor of more than 200 publications.
Stephen Pratt
Professor Stephen Pratt is a Full Professor in the Universal School of Experience Leadership and Innovation at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida. His research interests encompass sustainable tourism development, including the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism, as well as tourism in small island states and film tourism.
Throughout his career, he has worked and conducted research in a variety of international contexts, including the United Kingdom, the South Pacific, Hong Kong, and the United States, gaining extensive experience across diverse tourism destinations and markets. In addition to his academic work, Professor Pratt is a co-creator of The Travel Professors, a popular YouTube channel that explores contemporary tourism issues and travel-related topics. Through his research, teaching, and public engagement, he continues to contribute to the advancement of sustainable tourism knowledge and practice on a global scale.
Stefan Gössling
Professor Stefan Gössling is a leading international scholar in the field of tourism and sustainability. He serves as Professor of Tourism at the School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden. Over the past 30 years, his research has addressed a wide range of sustainability issues, with a particular focus on the relationship between tourism and climate change.
His work has significantly contributed to understanding both tourism’s impact on climate change and the ways in which climate change affects tourism destinations, businesses, and travellers. Through extensive research and numerous scientific publications, Professor Gössling has become one of the most influential voices in the fields of sustainable tourism, climate policy, and tourism development.
Institute for Tourism, Croatia
Josip Mikulić
Josip Mikulić is a Professor at the Department of Tourism, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, and a Scientific Advisor at the Institute for Tourism in Zagreb. His research focuses on tourism impacts, destination competitiveness, tourism measurement, consumer behaviour, and the social and economic consequences of tourism development.
He has published extensively in leading international tourism and hospitality journals and has received several national and international research awards. He is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a two-time recipient of the Croatian State Award for Science, awarded by the Croatian Parliament.
Professor Mikulić has served as Head of the Department of Tourism at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, and has been actively involved in research, policy advisory work, and destination planning in Croatia. His recent work addresses tourism externalities, inflationary pressures in tourism destinations, destination governance, and the need to move beyond volume-based performance indicators in tourism development.
He is also Editor-in-Chief of Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal.
Larry Dwyer
Larry Dwyer is Research Professor, Business School, University of Technology, Sydney. He publishes widely in the areas of tourism economics, sustainable development, tourism management, policy and planning, with over 400 publications in international journals, books, book chapters, government reports and monographs.
He has consulted for international agencies, including the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, and the OECD. Professor Dwyer is an Elected Fellow and past President of the International Academy for Study of Tourism, the world’s peak academic tourism body.
He is past President of the International Association for Tourism Economics, and currently serves on its International Advisory Board. He is the recipient of the 2025 United Nations Tourism Ulysses Prize for lifetime excellence in tourism research.