by David Airey and Haiyan Song

The recent death of Professor Brian Archer means the loss of one of the true pioneers of the study of tourism. As an economist he was one of the early leaders in bringing his discipline into tourism which in its turn contributed to the recognition of tourism as an important activity and worthy of serious academic study. Archer described himself as the “multiplier man” referring to the multiplier impact of tourist expenditure and it was his work on the tourism multiplier that made him known throughout the world both as an academic and as a consultant who could help countries understand the importance of tourism in their economies. His studies took him to countries world-wide – from Bermuda to Fiji, from Mauritius to Vanuatu; all of course significant tourism destinations in their own right and places where Archer could also enjoy himself being a tourist!

Brian Archer was born in the suburbs of Liverpool, England, into a farming family. As a high performing pupil at school, as was common in the UK at that time, he was encouraged to take classical studies (Latin, Greek and Ancient History) which later were extended to English, History and Geography. After two years of national service in the British Army he continued his Geography studies at the University of Cambridge. Following graduation he switched to Economics taking a further undergraduate degree externally from the University of London. He began his academic career as a school teacher of Geography but soon moved to the Economic Research Unit at what was then the University College of North Wales (now University of Bangor). Here he began his involvement in “multiplier studies” which led to his work for a doctorate examining the state of the art in tourism economics. At Bangor he served a number of years as Director of the Institute of Economic Research.

In 1979 he moved from Bangor to the University of Surrey as Professor and Head of the then Department of Hotel, Catering and Tourism Management. At Surrey he also served as Pro-Vice Chancellor. In total he was at Surrey for more than 20 years. During his time the Department, then School, continued to develop and grow, enhancing its reputation as a world centre for hospitality and tourism studies. He retired from his full-time post in 1994 but remained on a part-time basis until 2000. Subsequently he was made professor emeritus. During his retirement he stayed active, initially as a consultant and academic reviewer and examiner but always as an inveterate traveller. His personal interest in tourism remained with him until the end as did his love of cricket and rugby and he was an accomplished conjuror.

Throughout his career Brian Archer was very active internationally, carrying out studies in countries across the world and he was a regular invited speaker at tourism academic conferences. Beyond “tourism multipliers”, he was also known academically for his work on tourism demand forecasting. This was first published in 1976 in a book entitled Demand Forecasting in Tourism. In it he provides both theoretical foundations and econometric/statistical methods in tourism forecasting. This book was considered a gold standard at the time and inspired a number of tourism forecasters, such as Stephen Witt, Egon Smeral, Douglas Frechtling and Haiyan Song. Brian Archer was also among the first few academics who proposed to use the input-output and cost-benefit methods to assess the impacts of tourism on the environment and he applied to these techniques analysis to some of the island economies. Some of the analytical approaches have lately been incorporated into the tourism satellite account (TSA) framework.

With his background, his academic work and his international reputation it is little surprise that he was one of Founding Members of the Academy, present at the inaugural meeting held in Santander, Spain in 1988.