Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Management: An International Perspective

About

Dr Razaq Raj is Principal Lecturer in the Leeds Business School. His research interests include community events outdoor events economic impacts religious tourism cultural festivals and sustainable tourism cultural diversity in events management and international tourism. Dr Razaq Raj is the author of the textbooks Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Management: An International Perspective Event Management: An integrated and practical approach and Event Management and Sustainability. Dr Razaq Raj is also a board member of international journals and academic associations. Editor of International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Editor of International Journal of Islands Research Editor of International Journal of Islamic Tourism Series Editor CABI Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Book Series Dr.Kevin Griffin Bed MA PhD. Having studied teaching then tourism organisation and historic settlement I worked in a number of Geography Departments in the Dublin / Kildare area. Since 2001 I have worked at the DIT where I am actively involved in teaching and researching a broad range of tourism topics with particular specialism in both heritage and sustainable tourism. Editor in Chief International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Editor in Chief International Journal of Tour Guiding Research Editor in Chief International Journal of Islands Research Series Editor CABI Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Book Series Research Interests My main areas of academic interest include: * Tourism and Sustainability / Environmental Issues * Heritage Tourism * Religious Tourism / Pilgrimage * Social Tourism * Teaching Methodologies and Tourism * Local History / Heritage - Dr. Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga is a professor at the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Girona teaching in the Degree of Tourism and in the Master of Cultural Tourism. Her PhD dissertation was the first in Spain to address the subject of religious tourism. Her research line is cultural tourism from its conceptualization to its management. In this field her focus is twofold: pilgrimage and religious tourism and gastronomy tourism. She is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal on Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. She is also part of the Unitwin UNESCO Chair Culture Tourism and Development. She has carried several research projects both in the university and as a consultant. She has recently participated in several national and European projects notably in SPIRIT-Youth (related to the creation of a spiritual tourism proposal trough Europe for young people). Currently she cooperates with different institutions related to religious tourism such as Montserrat Monastery organizing courses and seminars to enhance the performance of tourism stakeholders in sacred spaces. Dolors Vidal-Casellas PhD is Dean and a senior lecturer at the Tourism Faculty of the University of Girona. She is Founder of the Official Master in Cultural Tourism a member of the Contemporary Culture and Art Chair and also member of the research groups 'Contemporary Art Theories' and 'Higher Institute of Tourism Studies' (INSETUR). She is director of the collection 'Turisme cultural' (cultural tourism) by Edicions Vitel·la (http://www.edicionsvitella.com). She joined different cooperation programmes with universities from Algeria Sao Paolo Piracicaba (Brazil) and San Martin de Porres (Peru). She is also a member of cultural tourism international networks: Ibertur Atlas and Unitwin 'Culture tourisme et developpement' (UNESCO). Her research interests include cultural tourism religious tourism history of tourism heritage management destination imagery and tourism planning and policies. Alan Clarke currently works at the University of Pannonia in Hungary and has had a significant role in establishing the English versions of the full undergraduate and Masters programmes. He has a wide range of research and consultancy experience in tourism planning strategy and sustainable development. He has published widely in sustainable tourism cultural heritage community festivals and events religious tourism and semiotic understandings of these developments. His current research focuses on aspects of governance and stakeholder involvement. He has adopted the Balaton and its cultures as a favourite place warmed by the sun refreshed by the waters and challenged to know more about the wines of the region. Agnes Raffay is Head of the Department of Tourism at the University of Pannonia in Veszprem Hungary. She has worked for Tourinform in Veszprem and was the inaugural Tourism Referent in the Mayor's Office of the local authority. Her PhD was a study of stakeholder involvement in urban tourism planning and was awarded by the University of Derby in the UK. She has worked around the Balaton for many years visiting regularly and running training for the DMOs (Destination Management Organizations) in the region. Her research interests and publications focus on destination management stakeholder involvement governance and involvement. is editor in chief of International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism (UP Argentina) and International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism (IGI-GlobalUS). Besides being Senior Researcher in the Department of Economics at University of Palermo Argentina he is a global affiliate of the Tourism Crisis Management Institute (University of Florida US) the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (University of Leeds) The Forge (University of Lancaster and University of Leeds UK) and The International Society for Philosophers hosted in Sheffield UK. With more than 700 published papers and 25 books Korstanje was awarded as Outstanding Reviewer 2012 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment University of Salford UK; Outstanding Reviewer 2013 Journal of Place Management and Development Institute of Place Manchester Metropolitan University UK and Reviewer Certificate of Acknowledgement 2014 International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM) University of Central Florida US. Now he co-edits almost 10 specialized journals in such themes as human rights mobility tourism and terrorism. Korstanje is subject to biographical records for Marquis Who's Who in the World since 2009. He has been nominated for 5 honorary doctorates for his contribution in the study of the effects of terrorism in tourism. In 2015 he was awarded Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Sociology and Social Policy University of Leeds UK and the University of La Habana Cuba. In 2017 he was elected as Foreign Faculty Member of AMIT Mexican Academy in the study of Tourism which is the most prominent institution dedicated to tourism research in Mexico. Now he works as an editorial advisory board member of Cambridge Scholar Publishing UK and IGI Global US. Nour Farra-Haddad is a senior researcher a tourism consultant an author and she teaches at St-Josef University of Beirut (Lebanon) and at the American University of Science and Technology. She has experience in development and management with a strong business consultancy background and in-depth experience in the Middle East tourism industry. She is a specialist in pilgrimages and religious tourism. She is now managing her own travel consultancy company NEOS. Her credentials include a PhD in religious anthropology a Masters in anthropology and two BSc degrees in archeology and anthropology. She holds a tourist guide diploma from the Ministry of Tourism and was designated as Vice President of the Lebanese Tour Guides Syndicate. She is also a founding member of the Association for the Development of Pilgrimages and Religious Tourism affiliated to the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke.