Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Stephen L. J. Smith

Biography

Stephen is a professor of tourism at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. His research interests in culinary tourism focus on visitor profiles, supply chains, and trends in culinary tourism product development. He advises a number of graduate students who are doing research on various aspects of culinary tourism, including product trends, branding of culinary destinations, and the role of food festivals in promoting local cuisine. In addition to his work in culinary tourism, Steve specializes in tourism economics and tourism statistics, and is the author of numerous articles in scholarly journals as well as several books. His two most recent books (2010) are Practical Tourism Research, a research methods text and The Discovery of Tourism, the biographies of the pioneers of tourism research from around the world. He is past-Chair of the Canadian Tourism Commission’s Research Committee, past-Chair of the Canadian Tourism Human Resources Council’s Research Committee and currently a member of the Market Performance and Assessment Committee of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership. Stephen consults with various government and not-for-profit agencies, including the development of the Ontario strategic and action plan for culinary tourism. He is a member of Slow Food International and is an Elected Fellow of the International Statistical institute, past-Chair of their Committee on Statistics in Travel and Tourism and an Elected Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism.

Research Interest

Culinary tourism
Cultural tourism
Destination marketing and management
Research methods
Tourism statistics
Tourism economics