Sean Kim

Biography

Dr Sean Kim is Associate Professor of Tourism at the School of Business and Law. Prior to joining ECU in 2017, Sean worked at Sheffield Hallam University (2005-6) and Leeds Metropolitan University (2007-8) in UK, and Flinders University (2009-16) in Australia. His work is international and interdisciplinary. Associate Professor Kim's research interests stem from five main themes at the boundaries of social psychology, cultural studies, media studies, geography, and tourism management and marketing. The first focuses on the close relationships between tourism and popular culture, with particular attention to tourism and (popular) media, media representation, celebrity cultures, and fan pilgrimage. Specifically, he is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of film tourism phenomenon and its broader impacts and implications. A second theme is centred on the relationship between intangible heritage (e.g. food), identity and tourism. A third area concerns tourist behaviours including experiences, motivations, and emotions. A fourth area relates to research methods in tourism including qualitative, quantitative, mixed, and visual research methods. A fifth theme focuses on tourism and community perspective (e.g. perceptions, attitudes, empowerment, social capital, quality of life). His recent research interests relate to multicultural festival and special event associated with ethnic minorities as well as Cittaslow, community empowerment and quality of life. Associate Professor Kim has been involved in a number of funded research projects, academic research collaborations, and professional consultancies. He has published more than 70 scholarly and industrial publications including 31 referred journal articles and 5 book chapters. One of the current research project is an edited book entitled 'Film tourism in Asia: Evolution, transformation and trajectory' to be published by Springer by the end of 2017. He is on the editorial boards of five reputed international tourism-related journals: Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Journal of Tourism & Cultural Change, Anatolia, Tourist Studies and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. He has also been serving as Academic Board Member of Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) International for 6 years. Associate Professor Kim was a visiting research fellow at Takasaki University of Commerce in Japan and at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in China, and a visiting associate professor at Zhejiang University in China and Universitas Gadjah Made (UGM) in Indonesia.

Research Interest

Film tourism; tourism and (popular) media, Visual culture and tourism, Tourism and creative industries, Food and tourism; food tourism; gastronomy tourism, Cultural (tangible and intangible) heritage, representation and identity, Consumer behaviour and psychology (e.g. social psychology, emotion), (Diaspora) community, festivals and tourism, Special interest tourism, Cittaslow movement, community engagement and sustainability, Tourism in Asia, Research methods (e.g. visual ethnography, mixed methods, qualitative & quantitative methods).