Professor Rhodri Thomas

Dean of School | Leeds Beckett University

Leeds, West Yorkshire, UNITED KINGDOM

Rhodri Thomas' current research is primarily concerned with the impact of academic knowledge production on non-academic constituencies.

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Biography

Rhodri Thomas is Professor of Tourism and Dean of the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University.

Rhodri has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics (Leeds) and two PhDs; one in management studies (Exeter) and one on public policy and small firms in tourism (LBU). He holds a PGCE (Leicester), is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT).

He has secured grant and non-grant research funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as well as from the European Commission, OECD, British government departments and various other agencies. Much of this work has been concerned with understanding (i) public policy designed to influence the practices of small firms in tourism and (ii) knowledge acquisition in tourism and the impact of academic knowledge production on practitioners.

Rhodri is currently examining how theorising on small firms in tourism articulates with work undertaken by researchers with an interest in other sectors. He is also part of a School-based research team led by Professor David Parsons on digital skills in tourism.

In addition to dissemination via academic journals and books, Rhodri has made invited keynote presentation to academic conferences in China, numerous European countries, and the USA. He has also accepted invitations to speak at major international practitioner events including those in Argentina (International Congress and Convention Association), Malta (Association of Independent Tour Operators), Spain and Italy (Institute of Travel and Tourism) as well as in the UK (e.g. Association of British Travel Agents [ABTA] and Association of British Professional Conference Organisers [ABPCO]). Rhodri was a member of the Business and Economics Panel of the New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), that country’s periodic system for research evaluation.

Rhodri is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events (ESCI listed; ABDC B), Co-ordinating Editor for the International Journal of Hospitality Management (ABS 3* SSCI IF 9.237) and Academic Editor for Sustainability (SSCI IF 3.251). He sits on the Editorial Advisory Boards of eight journals including Tourism Management, Tourism Management Perspectives, and the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Industry Expertise (3)

Travel and Tourism

Education/Learning

Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise (5)

Sustainable Tourism

Economics

Tourism

Events

Higher Education

Accomplishments (3)

Highly Commended Paper Award (professional)

2006 Education and Training

Best Article Award (professional)

1994 International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Best Article Award (professional)

2000 Quality Assurance in Education

Education (4)

University of Leicester: PGCE

Leeds Beckett University: PhD, Public Policy and Small Firms in Tourism

University of Exeter: PhD, Management Studies

University of Leeds: BA, Economics

Affiliations (5)

Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events : Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Hospitality Management : Co-ordinating Editor
Sustainability : Academic Editor
Higher Education Academy : Principal Fellow
Institute of Travel and Tourism : Fellow

Links (5)

Languages (1)

English

Media Appearances (1)

Welcome to Yorkshire and tourism policy credibility tests – Rhodri Thomas

The Yorkshire Post online

2021-11-11

My reading of the report suggests that Welcome to Yorkshire would fall short of its recommendations for good practice. The tortured recent history of our regional tourist board has not surprised many of us who take a professional interest in studying tourism and destination management.

Articles (5)

The ‘long tail’ of event management research: evidence from the field’s main journals

Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events

2021 Strategies to gain academic acceptance for emerging fields such as event management tend to involve a predictable set of activities. These include the creation of specialist peer reviewed journals and learned societies that improve the quality of outputs and advance the interests of members, respectively.

Problematising ‘The impact of tourism research’: A reply to Brauer, Dymitrow, and Tribe (2019)

Annals of Tourism Research

2021 The expectation that publicly funded academic research should influence the practices of non-academic actors is gaining currency. Indeed, it has become an almost ubiquitous aspect of contemporary performance-based research funding systems.

Narrating values-based entrepreneurs in tourism

Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change

2020 This paper adds to previous conceptualisations of lifestyle entrepreneurship in tourism by framing the identity construction of such enterprises in terms of their ethical commitment to global issues, social and economic inequalities, and radical criticism of neoliberal capitalism. The study addresses a gap in the tourism studies literature which usually conceptualises entrepreneurs as either commercially oriented or lifestyle oriented.

Affective subjectivation or moral ambivalence? Constraints on the promotion of sustainable tourism by academic researchers

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

2020 This paper examines an increasingly pervasive aspect of neoliberal research funding regimes, namely the expectation that academic research should influence non-academic policy and practice. More specifically, it explores the reaction of British academic researchers with an interest in sustainable tourism to what has become known as the impact agenda. How do they conceptualise impact?

The case for linguistic narrative analysis, illustrated studying small firms in tourism

Tourism Geographies

2019 We advocate the adoption of more expansive and creative methodological approaches the study of tourism. More specifically, we argue that by examining how individuals narrate their experiences and social practices, researchers can gain an insight into the meanings actors attach to their actions.