ITSA’s work is governed by an Executive Committee of scholars who volunteer their time to support the work of ITSA, and who are elected to serve for defined terms of office.
ITSA President – Professor Dr. Cine Van Zyl, University of South Africa, SA.
Cinà van Zyl is a professor in Tourism Management at the University of South Africa and formerly chair of the Department of Applied Management. She is currently president of the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA). Her research interest is in the leisure and business tourism market, more specifically the festival and sport event sector of the tourism industry. She also dabbles in the field of transport economics and higher education practice. Cinà is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management as well as a member of the International Journal of Tourism Cities. She is the author and co-author of journal publications, contributed to several books, and read papers at national and international conferences.
Email: vzylc@unisa.ac.za
Postal address: Department of Applied Management, University of South Africa (UNISA), Preller Street, Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
ORCID number: 000-0002-9302-6677
Vice President/Founding Chair -Professor Dr. Bihu (Tiger) Wu, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
Dr. Bihu (Tiger) Wu is Professor at the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Founding Chair of the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA), and a Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST). He also serves as Executive Director of the Expert Committee of the China Tourism Association. His research focuses on tourism geography, destination planning, and experoutination(游历) studies. He has led numerous national research projects, published extensively, and is widely influential in the international tourism academic community.
Vice President – Professor Dr. Vanessaa GB Gowreesunkar, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Vanessa (Gaitree) Gowreesunkar, Ph.D. is a citizen of Mauritius Island. She is currently serving as Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh, India, and as Associate Editor at the Emerald International Journal of Tourism Cities. She is the Vice President of the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA) and assumes the role of Observer at the Tourism International Network. With over 15 years of experience in teaching, training and research, Vanessa has brought her contributions to various international universities and educational institutions. Vanessa is also an elected member of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee and a specialist member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and Tourism and Protected Areas (IUCN). She serves as an editorial board member of several international scientific journals. Vanessa has varied interests in tourism and her areas of expertise include Tourism Management & Marketing, Tourism Education, Post-Colonial and Post-Conflict Destination Management, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Research Methodology, Employability and Organisational Management Skills, Social Entrepreneurship and related topics. Vanessa aspires to be a reference to the academic community and a role model to the global community. Her vision is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and make a positive impact on the economy, society and the environment.
Vice President – Professor Dr. Abhishek Bhati, James Cook University, Singapore
Professor Abhishek Singh Bhati is the Campus Dean of James Cook University Singapore. Abhishek’s research investigates responsible tourism, resilience planning in tourism, sustainable development of cities, and scholarship of learning and teaching. In particular, he is interested in technology and the role it has as a catalyst for tourism industry changes, “Smart City” as a mechanism for future sustainable development, and the need for tourism to deliver United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). His recent projects have explored visitor intention to travel, sideline tourism and tourism value-add and tourist vandalism.
Impact: He contributed to the development of a set of intervention strategies to address vandalism at visitor attractions in Singapore & Thailand, informed National Research Council Thailand’s position paper on the review of tourism police in Bangkok and to the increased understanding of new genres in tourism such as industrial heritage railways tourism and dark tourism in Asia.
Vice President – Professor Dr. Lina Zhong, Ph.D, Beijing International Studies University, China
Lina Zhong, Ph.D., is the executive dean of China Institute for Big Data Research in Culture and Tourism, Beijing International Studies University. She serves as an international expert for the United Nations World Tourism Organization, and editorial positions in several academic journals. Her research areas are smart tourism and digital humanities, including digital culture, cultural and tourism big data and cross-cultural communication in digital era. She is good at text quantitative analysis and spatial analysis based on big data, and has strong innovation ability, scientific research ability and teaching ability. Ranked 2nd among Mainland Chinese scholars in Google Scholar’s tourism management category, with a total of 1357 citations, an H index of 18, and an I10 index of 31. Published 86 papers and applied for 8 patents. She is a young scholar with strong academic potential in the field of tourism and culture.