The TRC regularly organises TRC Seminars following a traditional set-up and the more casual Tourism Research Sips, as well other outstanding events, as the TRC Symposium. Upcoming and past events in our TRC Seminar and Tourism Research Sips series along with information about the TRC Symposium are listed below. For more information on upcoming events, please contact trc@curtin.edu.au
Key events
Upcoming events
Upcoming events will soon be announced here. Alternatively, e-mail us at trc@curtin.edu.au to join our mailing list to receive information first-hand.
The Tourism Research Cluster co-hosted the Wangkiny Coolamon Research Gathering in 2023. The event took place in Perth as a component of the World Indigenous Tourism Summit held by the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance and the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council.
Due to ongoing travel restrictions, WITS had been postponed for 2023. For further information on the event, program and speakers and how to participate, please visit the symposium’s webpage.
This year’s TRC Symposium was co-hosted by Curtin’s Future of Work Institute and was held face-to-face in Curtin’s Perth CBD venue on 22 July, 2022. This year’s edition combined key industry and academic speakers to address focal workforce issues and solutions in the tourism, hospitality and events industry. Find out more about our biggest event of the year on the event page here.
The TRC partnered with the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany) and Australia’s South West on a series of carefully curated events.
The first component of the series, the Eichstätt Tourism Futures Event, took place online via Zoom on 27 April 2021 from 3 to 6pm (AWST) with a focus on recovery perspectives from Europe. A group of dedicated speakers discussed tourism recovery strategies across Germany, Slovenia, Italy, among other countries. Watch the full recorded event here.
The second edition, the Australia’s South West Tourism Futures Event, took place face-to-face in Yallingup, WA on 11 May 2021 from 2.30 to 5.30 pm (AWST) and was also streamed online. In this event, we presented evidence on the effectiveness of tourism recovery strategies and on resident support for tourism in challenging times. The event featured international perspectives from countries leading in post-COVID tourism recovery trajectory due to a high-paced vaccination roll-out or low infection rates, such as the UK, China, and the Maldives. Keynote speakers from each of these locations joined us to share experiences and observations with respect to tourism revitalisation in their countries and provided useful insights into pathways of tourism recovery.
Together with all our industry and government partners, we were thrilled to inform that this event featured the launch of the first annual report produced by the UNWTO endorsed Australia’s South West Sustainable Tourism Observatory, delivering evidence-based pathways to sustainable tourism in an iconic tourism destination. To watch the recorded event, please click here.
CurtinCorner is a seminar series that features a broad range of topics in a seminar and discussion format, to view other CurtinCorners, please click here. TRC members have presented insightful discussions in JCIPP Curtin Corner this year, which you can access online:
The governance and regulation of the Influencer industry
Associate Professor Crystal Abidin Principal Research Fellow, ARC DECRA Fellow, Curtin University
Curtin University’s Tourism Research Cluster launched Australia’s first UNWTO-endorsed tourism observatory at Pullman Bunker Bay Resort, Naturaliste on Friday the 27th September 2019. Along with key partners Tourism Western Australia, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions – Government of Western Australia, Australia’s South West, Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association, South West Development Commission, Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia and Expedia, the TRC officially introduced the observatory to tourism stakeholders and the broader public.
To assist in launching this important observatory, Josh Whiteland from Koomal Dreaming and Gene Hardy from Cape to Cape Tours shared thoughts on tourism development, conservation and sustainability.
Event details:
Date: Friday, 27 September 2019, 3:00 – 5:00 pm Location: Windmills I & II, Pullman Bunker Bay Resort
42 Bunker Bay Road, Naturaliste WA, 6281 (map)
TRC x CRL Symposium – The Digital Future of the Tourism Industry in Western Australia
The Tourism Research Cluster’s Annual International Symposium was co-hosted by Curtin’s Consumer Research Lab on 18 February 2021 with a focus on the ‘Digital Future of the Tourism Industry in WA’.
Digital innovation has already disrupted the way tourism businesses operate. In times of global crisis and technological disruption, the 2021 TRC x CRL Symposium brought together key academics and industry leaders to discuss the opportunities and challenges of digitalisation in tourism, foster digital readiness and strengthen digital resilience in the industry, and to discuss strategies to prepare the sector for the digital future.
Please visit the Symposium website for more information on the past event’s program and guest speakers.
Even before the pandemic, national arts festivals in South Africa were at a crossroads, grappling with declining audiences, fierce competition for sponsors, and limited government backing. Critics argued that these festivals had strayed from their original purpose of promoting the arts, resembling commercial bazaars more than cultural showcases. In this seminar, the current state of five prominent national arts festivals were analysed. The idea was to examine their resilience strategies during the challenging pandemic and explore the hurdles they must overcome to remain relevant in an ever-changing cultural landscape. During the seminar, Prof. Kruger unravelled South African festivals’ past, present, and future and paint a vibrant picture of what lies ahead for these arts and cultural festivals in South Africa.
Speaker: Prof Martinette Kruger
Prof. Martinette Kruger is a distinguished Professor of Tourism Management at North-West University’s Research Unit, TREES (Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society) in South Africa. She is an established researcher with a prestigious C3 research rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). In 2019, she received the Distinguished Young Woman Researcher Award for Humanities and Social Sciences at the South African Women in Science Awards. Prof. Kruger specialises in market segmentation, particularly in festivals and events. She has examined various event contexts, including arts, music, sports, culinary, and exhibitions, focusing on market needs, especially in developing countries and multicultural societies. She has published 120+ articles, and as a dedicated supervisor, she has guided 20 honours, 15 masters, and 15 doctoral students. Prof. Kruger received the “Research in Excellence” award for junior researchers (2012-2015 and 2019) and the “Most Significant Contribution to Research” award in 2020. She has represented North-West University at over 85 national and international conferences, serves on ICOT and ISCONTOUR scientific committees, and is an associate editor for the Journal of Convention and Event Tourism. Prof. Kruger is a respected reviewer for national and international accredited journals, advancing research in her field.
Balancing teaching, research and life Speaker: Prof Karen Smith, Victoria University of Wellington and A/Prof Leonie Lockstone-Binney, William Angliss Institute
Developments in Aboriginal Tourism Speakers: Robert Taylor – CEO, WAITOC and Tod Jones – senior lecturer and discipline lead for Geography, Curtin University
