President's Message

Dear Academy Fellows:

Time has gone by quickly since the conference and now we are in the midst of moving forward with making some modest advances in how the Academy is represented on the internet and how it is organized. First, we have made some small editorial changes to our website as well as its location. Now, you can find the Academy website at www.TourismScholars.org. We plan to update the website further so as to make it more consistent with our vision of tourism and more consistent with current design standards. Second, as we discussed at our annual business meeting in Bali, we have moved forward with nominating all those persons approved at the Bali meetings. Due to the changes in the nomination and election procedure stipulated in our new bylaws, the process took a little bit longer than usual. Soon however, you will be asked to consider each of the candidates that were nominated by the Fellows for membership in the Academy.

Beyond these vital first steps, we have initiated a search for the location of the 2021 meetings. As noted previously, the proposal to host the 2021 meetings in Israel did not work out. Currently, we are entertaining a set of new and interesting proposals, and we hope to determine soon which to accept. If you are interested to host our next meeting at your university, please let us know. You will be notified as soon as possible regarding the site of the 2021 Academy meetings so that you can start planning early!

As we move towards the new year, 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 evince significant challenges. It is vital that the Academy take leadership in addressing these issues by highlighting the many successes of our colleagues worldwide, by encouraging our colleagues to move further faster, and by highlighting discussion of vital research addressing these issues in the 2021 meeting. As such, we plan to develop a new section of the Academy website and we plan to consider the possibility of inviting participation by leading scholars in the 2021 meeting so as to highlight these efforts. I hope you will support our efforts in further improving and increasing the reach out of our bi-annual conference.

As always, I look forward to hearing from all of you as we move forward into 2020.

Wishing you all the best,

Karl Wöber
Karl.woeber@modul.ac.at