Justin Taillon

Assistant Professor | Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship

Guelph, ON, CANADA

Prior to returning joining academia Justin worked for six years in the hotels, two years in F&B, and one year in event management.

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Biography

Justin's hotel career began in 2000 with Starwood Hotels & Resorts as an Intern in the Bellman Department. Justin worked his way up to Front Office Manager at The Hilton – Post Oak by 2004 and became an Assistant General Manager at a franchised Hilton property in Houston, Texas in 2006.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the University of Guelph's College of Management and Economics. Great job, cool town, and fantastic opportunities, support, and lifestyle here in Guelph!

Industry Expertise (4)

Education/Learning

Hotels and Resorts

Travel and Tourism

Research

Areas of Expertise (10)

Hotel Operations

Certifications in Sustainability in the Hotel Industry

Pro-Poor Tourism

Feasibility Studies

Community Branding

Market-Based Conservation

Socio-Cultural Sustainability

Sustainable Tourism

Volunteer Tourism

Tourism Pedagogy

Education (3)

University of Houston, Texas: B.Sc., Hospitality & Tourism 2003

Advisor: Dr. Agnes DeFranco

University of Guelph: MBA, Hospitality & Tourism 2007

Texas A&M University: PhD, Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences 2011

Links (2)

Languages (3)

English
Hungarian
Spanish

Articles (12)

Sustainable tourism pedagogy and academic-community collaboration: A progressive service-learning approach

SAGE Publications

2011-04-01

This article proposes a progressive, experiential and collaborative approach to sustainable tourism pedagogy (STP). Six core STP literacies (technical, analytical, ecological, multi-cultural, ethical, policy and political) are identified, which guide skill and knowledge development for the sustainability practitioner. These are facilitated through experiential education in the field that facilitates critical thinking, practical knowledge and participatory action. It is argued that a critical reflexive stance combined with a collaborative community service-learning approach in STP enables phronesis (practical wisdom) and praxis (social change). A case example is provided of an academic-community collaboration involving undergraduate students, local public and private sector stakeholders, plus diverse rural residents that came together temporarily to explore a cultural heritage issue and challenge. This collaboration facilitated collaborative learning, diverse community involvement and community service. The case overview illustrates a teaching opportunity that conveys how some of these STP priorities were undertaken, including the need for critical social action (to address not only environmental issues but also social-cultural sustainability issues related to the well-being of minority, marginalized and diverse populations).

The identification of motivation in voluntourists: Particularly extrinsic motivators in vacation-minded volunteer tourism participants

University of Guelph

2007-08-14

Rapid growth within the composite product of tourism has made traveling less complex over the past century. There are fewer barriers to travel. The rapid expansion of the airline industry, automobiles, advancements in railways and their subsequent evolution to monorails, the rent-a-car agencies, and most recently the Internet have furthered the ease of travel. For example, the Internet has made way for companies such as Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak.com, and Hotels.com. With elevated mobility also comes globalization. Companies, governments, agencies, and people are ever more dependent upon tourism to meet their objectives. These objectives may include personal reasons such as growth, business-related reasons, the rationale of assisting the greater good, or an intertwining of multiple reasons and objectives.

Understanding tourism as an academic community, study, and/or discipline

Oxford University Press

2009-05-14

Tourism literature has shown there is a disagreement amongst academics conducting tourism research as to whether tourism is an academic community, academic study, and/or academic discipline. These three terms are used loosely and change in meaning depending upon the author, source, context, and discipline of the author(s). The following paper identifies tourism’s current position in academia using these three ideas of academic acceptance as tools to guide the discussion. Also guiding the discussion are ideas from tourism scholars and Kuhn’s ideas of what constitutes a discipline. The discussion leads to a debate about “truths” in tourism research. Recommendations regarding the advancement of tourism in academia via theory construction in the academic field of tourism are presented.

Understanding tourism as an academic community, study, and/or discipline

King's College London

2009-01-01

Hotel pet policies: an assessment of willingness to pay for travelling with a pet

Routledge

2014-07-25

Introduction Friedman's property rights argument stated decision-makers failing to maximize shareholder wealth violate shareholder agreements (Phillips, 2004). For this reason, hoteliers focus on profit maximization. Research on maximizing hotel profits is often referred to as willingness to pay. For this reason, hoteliers focus on profit maximization (Taillon, Laurie, & Yhip, 2014).

The tourist gaze 3.0

Routledge

2014-02-07

When I began my PhD studies in recreation, park, and tourism sciences, I was confronted by many texts professors identified as seminal to the fields. Each course and professor seemed to have their own preferred seminal texts, and not always a large amount of overlap between the fields.

Turning the tune: traditional music, tourism, and social change in an Irish village

Routledge

2014-01-02

I originally approached Turning the tune as a heritage festival text. The available materials on festivals in the tourism literature are heavily steeped in event management, which led me to believe I would be reading something along the lines of the books by Getz, Yeoman and Ali-Knight. I also thought of heritage festivals, predominantly those associated with music such as Greenwood's chapter on Fuenterrabia in Valene Smith's seminal text Hosts and guests.

Last chance tourism: adapting tourism opportunities in a changing world

Routledge

2013-11-01

When I was collecting my PhD dissertation data in southeast Texas, I experienced a phenomenon known as 'last chance tourism'. Specifically, three features of the phenomenon stood out to me and, coincidentally, this book delineates last chance tourism in precisely the same way.

Books and travel: inspirations, quests, and transformations (tourism and cultural change)

Routledge

2013-06-01

In the opening statement of this book, St. Augustine is quoted as stating,'The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page'(Laing & Frost, 2012, p. 1). The quote can be understood as the model of this text. The discourse forwarded within the book is the interplay between locations learned by potential tourists through reading and the authentic location itself.

Critical debates in tourism

Taylor & Francis Group

2013-04-01

Richard Butler examines the continuum of large-and small-scale tourism establishments, giving particular credence to the thought that small does not necessarily equate to sustainable, in much the same way anthropologists approach the “noble savage” as not necessarily more sustainable.

Editorial Column

Tourism & Hospitality

2012-01-01

The current state of open access journals mirrors the problematic qualities of one of the most infamous ideas of the past half-century: The Tragedy of the Commons. Hardin’s seminal 1968 publication is quickly approaching its fiftieth anniversary, yet public interest has not waned. Rather, the application of his idea is being applied to more, not less, situations we face in the academic field of tourism. As The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism is an open-access journal, and an anniversary is approaching The Tragedy of the Commons, I believe now is an apt time to realize the application of this model to open access journals such as The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism.

Tragedy of the Commons

Texas A&M University

2010-04-29

In December 1968 an ecologist named Garrett Hardin published The Tragedy of the Commons. The publication emphasized an idea that would become a basis for sustainable tourism and ecotourism, among other ideas seminal to the field of tourism. Hardin’s primary objective was to convey that multiple rational actors, when faced with limited resources, will each make decisions based upon what is in their personal interest. This is in lieu of making decisions for the betterment of their “community” and/or long-term interests.