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keynote speakers

Dr. Ana María Munar is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Her research interests are in digital technologies, epistemology, higher education and gender. Grounded in critical scholarship, Ana's work on digital technologies establishes the foundations for the advancement of Critical Digital Tourism Studies while her papers on education examine the impact of global and regional policies in tourism education. Her latest publications focus on postdisciplinarity in knowledge production, novel approaches to integrate the field of digital technologies in the curriculum and gender equality in the tourism academy. She coordinates the action-based research project, "While Waiting for the Dawn," which seeks to bring about change by empowering tourism women academics. A highly engaged scholar, Ana has occupied a series of recent and past positions in academic bodies. At her present university she holds board membership positions at the Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Association of Faculty Staff and the board of tutors for the Assistant Professors Pedagogical Programme. She is member of the Executive Committee of the Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI), where she coordinates the Advocacy area, and board member of the annual International Seminar on Innovation and Tourism (INTO). Ana is also administrator of the online community "Women Academics in Tourism", a web platform founded by Dr. Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore to enhance awareness on gender related topics. She is the coordinator for Tourism and Hospitality of the B.Sc of Service Management and Business Administration at Copenhagen Business School and has extensive experience in curriculum and programme development.

Dr. Ana María Munar

Dr. Vincent Platenkamp (1950) studied Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He taught philosophy of science for sociologists and anthropologists between 1977 and 1980. From 1980 to 1989 he was a member of the staff for a part-time education in HRM (Human Resource Management) in The Hague (part of the Hogeschool Haarlem). In 1988 he came to NHTV in Breda, first as a member of staff of the leisure management department and from 1993 on as member of the ITMC (International Tourism Management and Consultancy) staff. He was a lecturer in sociology, management and organisation and cross-cultural studies. He has also been involved in the postgraduate course ETM (European Tourism Management) since 1989 and since this year in the ma-TDM (Master Tourism Destination Management). Recently his main study area became cross-cultural studies. Vincent Platenkamp has been involved in international educational and training programmes on tourism, leisure and especially total quality management in France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Cuba, Curacao, Indonesia and Thailand. He successfully defended his PhD ‘Contexts in tourism and leisure studies. A cross-cultural contribution to the production of knowledge’ in January 2007 at the Wageningen University. Since January 2007 he has become a professor in cross-cultural management”.

Dr. Erik Cohen is the George S. Wise Professor of Sociology (emeritus) at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in 1932 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, he immigrated to Israel in 1949. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between 1954-61 (B.A. in Sociology and Economics, M.A. in Sociology and Philosophy), and completed his Ph. D. in 1968. He taught at the Hebrew University, 1959-2000, and served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Science 1988-1992. His principal research areas were collective settlements, urban studies, folk arts and tourism. He conducted research in Israel, Peru, the Pacific Islands and, since 1977, in Thailand. He is the author of more than two hundred publications. His recent books include The Commercialized Crafts of Thailand (2000), The Chinese Vegetarian Festival in Phuket: Religion, Ethnicity and Tourism on a Southern Thai Island (2001), Contemporary Tourism: Diversity and Change (Elsevier, 2004), Israeli Backpackers and Their Society (edited with Ch. Noy, 2005) and Explorations in Thai Tourism (Emerald, 2008). His main present preoccupations are general theoretical problems emerging from globalization and post-modern trends in travel; mobilities; non-Western tourism; animal-tourist engagement; tourism and disaster; festivals; and ethnic tourism. Cohen served as Sociology Editor of Annals of Tourism Research since 1976, and is on the Editorial board of several other journals. He also edits the series Studies in Contemporary Thailand for White Lotus, Bangkok. He is a founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism. Cohen was awarded the UNWTO Ulysses Prize for 2012.

Dr. Erik Cohen