Philip L. Pearce on tourist behaviour research: Tourist behaviour: the essential companion

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Acknowledgements

This review pays respect to the scholarly contribution of Professor Philip L. Pearce who passed away in Australia on 10 August 2020. After degree studies in psychology at the University of Adelaide, and then the University of Oxford, and a time working as a senior lecturer in psychology and in tourism consulting, Philip Pearce became the first Professor of Tourism in Australia in 1990. He spent time at Harvard University as a Fulbright scholar and taught for concentrated periods at Universities in Italy, Austria, Thailand, Singapore and China. He wrote 15 books with tourism themes and had around 275 publications. He has been a keynote speaker at conferences in Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Australia and published with a number of international partners. His fundamental interests were in what tourists do, think and feel. He explored multiple settings and social contexts influencing these core psychological processes. He developed models of tourist motivation and experience and used a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods in his studies. His books on tourist behaviour (1982, 1988, 2005, and 2011) as well as his studies of positive psychology including humour (2011, 2014, and 2015) are recognized and used globally. He concentrated recently on emerging markets and tourist behaviour topics in Asia, though his studies have a cross- national applicability and relevance. He was an active PhD supervisor with over 40 successful doctoral graduates and particularly enjoyed working with his international students on new topics in tourist experience and management. He was awarded the title Distinguished Professor of the University in 2016, the first social scientist to achieve this accolade. Vale Prof. Philip L. Pearce.

(The above acknowledgements are adapted from Prof. Philip L. Pearce’s staff page at James Cook University, Australia)