Issues and Challenges towards Reigniting Mediterranean Tourism Panel

Professor Marina Novelli
Brighton University, UK

Presentation – introduction

Profile

Marina is a geographer with a background in economics. She is an internationally renowned tourism policy, planning and development expert and Professor of Tourism and International Development at the School of Sport and Service Management, which is an Affiliate Member of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

She is Academic Lead for the University’s Responsible Futures’ Research and Enterprise Agenda, which is aimed at fostering internal and external interdisciplinary research and consultancy collaborations. She has advised on numerous international cooperation and research assignments funded by International Development Organisations (IDOs) such as: The World Bank, the European Union, The UN (UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO), the Commonwealth Secretariat, National Ministries and Tourism Boards, Regional Development Agencies and NGOs.

She is known globally for her excellence in leading and collaborating with multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and multi-cultural teams and for her commitment to generating new knowledge on ways in which tourism can play a key role in sustainable development by stimulating local economies, conserving the environment, developing peoples and changing lives.She has written and advised extensively on a number of tourism, leisure and hospitality-related aspects in Africa, Europe and Asia.

Her global reputation is associated with there broad thematic areas: tourism and development in the developing economies (particularly in Africa); niche tourism development and management, overtourism.

Her interdisciplinary approach to the study of tourism draws on human geography, development studies and international politics as well as anthropology and sociology.