A tourism PhD reflection

A former tourism industry general manager turned academic provides reflections on aspects of his PhD experience. In particular, two issues are the focus. Firstly, the evolution and maturing of his own thinking during the course of the thesis, from that of a ‘booster’ to the development of a more holistic perspective relating to tourism planning. Secondly, and related to the first issue, he laments the great divide separating tourism practitioners and academics. From his experience as a practitioner he suggests the literature contains a wealth of material that has practical value. However, as an academic, he is left wondering how much of this scholarly work actually reaches the tourism industry