President's Message

Dear Fellows:

This is my last newsletter as the President of the Academy and provides a wonderful moment to reflect on my term as President of the Academy.

When I submitted my application for the presidency of the Academy, I knew that it would not be easy to meet the expectations of the community with very different perceptions about the vision and the activities of our network. What I did not know, and what happened very suddenly for all of us, was the nature and extent of the impact of the many societal challenges transforming the world, tourism, and academia. Looking back, the Covid crisis represents the starting point of several events that have changed the world. The ongoing wars in the Ukraine and Gaza Strip, the high inflation in many parts of the world, the huge impact of carbon consumption on air pollution, and the potential threats of climate change are only some of the forces of change affecting society. Indeed, the continuing evolution of information communication technology (ICT), as recently illustrated by ChatGTP and similar AI-based tools, lays bare even greater challenges to society. All of these developments are especially relevant to the tourism industry and the university.

Personally, my presidency of the Academy was a very difficult but exciting time. Serving as the President of the Academy despite being President of a University in Austria that has undergone two accreditations and two ownership changes, in addition to managing two long lockdown phases and online teaching transitions during the time of my Academy Presidency, was a huge challenge. Organizing Academy conferences during, or briefly after a pandemic was another challenge. I was particularly devastated when I found out after our Academy conference in Leuven that many Fellows had contracted COVID-19. We were a superspreader event!

It has been particularly difficult for me to come to terms with the fact that so many Fellows died during my presidency. Probably never in the last five years have so many Fellows passed away. For me, as a relatively young Fellow, every piece of news about the death of a colleague was a deep shock and difficult to realise. Only a few months after my inauguration, we were all still shocked about Philip Pearce’s sudden death. It was an incredible loss not only for his family and friends but also for the tourism research community and the Academy. It was also with great sadness that our colleague and Academy Fellow, David Harrison, passed away a couple of months later. David had been suffering from cancer for a long time but was still very active. Only a few weeks later, Tej Vir Singh died after a prolonged illness with COVID. Tej was a founding member of the Academy and was awarded the UNWTO Ulysses Prize for Excellence in the Creation and Dissemination of Knowledge in 2013. Recently, the Academy was saddened to hear of the passing of one of our Fellows and friends, Valene L. Smith. Valene was a founder of tourism anthropology and inspired many with her groundbreaking work. Let me remind you once again of these great colleagues. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the Fellows who helped me process the incidents and write appropriate obituaries.

The fact that we managed to organize the 2022 Academy meeting in Europe despite the most difficult circumstances and this year, for the first time in the history of the Academy, in the USA, makes me a little proud. Daniel Fesenmaier and Alan Fyall have invested a lot of time and effort to give the Academy a worthy first appearance at the UCF in Orlando, Florida. Our first Vice President has again tried to make some improvements in the format of the meeting and has taken the feedback from colleagues after the last conference very seriously. This year, for example, we are shortening the conference by one day. Every change is not welcomed by everyone, and of course, comes with a risk. I would like to ask all Fellows to give change a chance and to continue to seek constructive dialogue to make the Academy conference even better in the future.

In the five years of my Presidency, we also welcomed 17 new Fellows: Albert Assaf, Salvador Anton Clavé, Scott Cohen, Aliza Fleischer, Xavier Font, Alan Fyall, Heather Gibson, Jürgen Gnoth, Ulrike Gretzel, Tazim Jamal, SooCheong (Shawn) Jang, Scott McCabe, Tanja Mihalič, Nigel Morgan, Marina Novelli, Youcheng Wang, and Honggang Xu. All seventeen are outstanding colleagues who are true world leaders in their respective fields. They will have a strong and immediate impact on the Academy.

We also introduced several communication improvements during the last five years. First, we introduced the new academy domain name www.TourismScholars.org. We revised the website further to make it more consistent with our vision of tourism and more consistent with current design standards. We removed the email addresses of Fellows to prevent phishing attacks, which increased significantly over the years. Based on an initiative of our Fellow Pauline Sheldon, the ACADEMY-NET listserv has been set up and was officially launched on 1 January 2023. It is intended for use by Academy Fellows and Fellows Emeriti only. You are free to use it in any way you see fit to further the mission of the Academy or your own research and educational efforts in tourism. Once again, the purpose of the ACADEMY-NET listserv is to promote intellectual debate and professional and personal narrative among all Fellows and Fellows Emeriti. Let's use it to stay in touch and discuss the many current issues in our very special network!

I want to thank the Academy secretaries, Leslie Fung and Darry Dai, who have served the Academy and supported me for the past five years. Darry is about to complete her PhD and will move on. I am glad to inform you that Aria Jin, a first-year PhD student at HKPolyU, will succeed Darry and serve the Academy for the next few years.

I would also like to thank all the executives who have accompanied me during my presidency for their support: Bob McKercher (Board Chair), Daniel Fesenmaier (1st Vice President), Bao Jigang (2nd Vice President, 2019-2023), Alan Fyall (2nd Vice President, 2023-), Alison Gill (Treasurer, 2019-2023), and Ulrike Gretzl (Treasurer, 2023-). Your advice and guidance were always appreciated.

To the new incoming Executive Board led by President Muzzo Uysal, and including first Vice President Maria Gravari-Barbas, 2nd Vice President Alan Fyall, and Treasurer Ulrike Gretzel, I wish you all the best for your upcoming term. As the new Board Chair, I will try to support you with the knowledge I gained during the privileged years I experienced.

As we move towards our next Academy conference, it is important to recognize the challenges we face as a society. From global climate change and threats to democracy, the university and the study of tourism continue to experience many transformational challenges. It is vital that the Academy take leadership by discussing the research addressing these issues in our 2024 Academy conference, highlighting the many successes of our colleagues, and encouraging our colleagues to move further faster. I am looking forward to seeing you all in Orlando, Florida!

Wishing you all the best,

Prof. Karl Wöber