The University of Queensland’s School of Tourism has become a sought-after destination in its own right.
Papers and articles prepared by academics at the school are frequently among the Top 25 Hottest Articles downloaded from leading A* journals such as the Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management, according to ScienceDirect.
Noel Scott’s Power in Destination Branding was listed at number 1 in ScienceDirect’s analysis of Annals of Tourism Research between April and June, while School of Tourism head of school Roy Ballantyne and colleagues Dr Jan Packer and Meagan Axelsen’s Trends in Tourism Research was listed at number 2 in January-March and 11 in April-June.
In total, seven articles prepared by School of Tourism academics were listed in ScienceDirect’s Top 25 published in Tourism Management between January and June 2009.
Among them was Event Tourism: Definition, evolution and research by Professor Don Getz at number 2 in the January-March and April-June analysis. Dr Brent Ritchie’s Chaos, crises and disasters: a strategic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry and Aaron Tkaczynski’s Segmentation: A tourism stakeholder view also made the Top 25 Tourism Management list on ScienceDirect.
Other articles included in the Tourism Management Top 25 were by Roy Ballantyne, Jan Packer and Karen Hughes; and Noel Scott.
The ScienceDirect rankings were backed by Google Scholar, which also found the School’s work was among the most frequently downloaded from Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management. Academics from the school have five of the most frequently cited articles about tourism management in business management and accounting journals in the top 100 of Google Scholar, according to Harzing’s Publish or Perish software.
Articles produced by Professor Getz came in at numbers 19, 28, 53 and 81 out of 100, while Dr Ritchie’s article about crisis management made 92nd place, with 73 citations. In addition, four of the 20 most frequently downloaded papers from Tourism Management in the first three months of this year were prepared by School of Tourism staff, Google Scholar found.
Other papers written by UQ School of Tourism staff in Tourism Management that rated in the top 20 most frequently downloaded according to Google Scholar included Destination and enterprise management for a tourism future (to which Noel Scott contributed).
Professor Ballantyne said the results showed the School was producing highly credible and usable material.
“It cements our position as a top international research school”, Professor Ballantyne said.
"What we are doing has practical value as well as academic value - our work is highly relevant and the fact that our papers are frequently cited shows that we are at the forefront of research issues.’’
Professor Ballantyne said the School generated publications on topics ranging from tourism behaviour and destination management to environmental awareness among visitors to botanic gardens.
"The subjects of our research are wide and varied, which gives the School an unparalleled depth and credibility,’’ he said.
For more information phone Jodie Powell, Media Officer, UQ School of Tourism on 0409 946 796.
