Marcus L. Stephenson

Biography

Marcus Stephenson is a Professor of Tourism and Hospitality, and Head of the Tourism and Hospitality Management School. He recently joined The University of the South Pacific from Middlesex University Dubai, where he was an Associate Professor of International Tourism Management and the former Chair of Research. He has a BSc (Hons) in Sociology and Social Administration, and a MA in the Sociology and Anthropology of Tourism and Travel. Both degrees were awarded by the University of Surrey (UK). He gained his PhD in the field of social tourism in 1998 at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). He also has an Advanced Diploma in Professional Development in Education, awarded by the University of North London. Prior to Middlesex, Marcus was the Director of Postgraduate Research for the Department of Business and Service Sector Management at London Metropolitan University (UK). He has published extensively on the sociology of tourism, especially in relation to aspects of race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, culture and religion. He is the co-author of the book: ‘Tourism and Citizenship: Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities in the Global Order’, a Routledge publication. He has conducted tourism-based research in the Middle East, Caribbean, Tanzania and the UK, and carried out research consultancies for various tourism-related institutions at both regional and international level. He is on the journal editorial advisory board for four academic journals, and has acted as an external advisor and examiner for a number of universities offering degree programmes in tourism and hospitality.

Research Interest

Cultural Applications within the Hospitality Environment: Islamic hospitality; and halal food production and consumption; and indigenization of the workforce. Heritage Industry: strategic management initiatives and developments in cultural heritage tourism; and cultural nationalism and the heritage industries. Medical Tourism: transplant tourism within the context of the developing world. Tourism and Citizenship: social tourism; the rights and responsibilities of hosts and guests; cultural and multicultural rights; the politics of passports and tourist visas; and the freedom of movement and the right to travel. Tourism, Migration and Post-Migration Mobility: roots tourism and diasporic communities; sociological perceptions of the ancestral homeland; the VFR market; tourism and post-migratory networks; racialized movements, experiences and encounters; and tourism and Islamophobia. Tourism and Small States: tourism development challenges in the Caribbean; tourism and the Arabian peninsula – developments and opportunities; and tourism and the United Arab Emirates - tourism education, Emiratisation and the hospitality industries.