BIO 

I have been a professor in hospitality for 25 years (and still counting), with industry experience in hotel and food and beverage management. I embarked on the tourism trajectory with my research doctorate in tourism management from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. My research involved living in UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China- Hongcun and Xidi, including Nanping village for six months to examine tourism impacts on residents and tourists against the backdrop of place attachment and meaning.

Travel, gastronomy, and music are my interests and for the latter, I have in mind Ólafur Arnalds, Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Melody Gardot, and Joey Ayala, to name a few examples.

Degrees earned

Doctor of Philosophy in Tourism Management

Masters in Foodservice Administration

Affiliation

I am an associate member of the National Research Council of the Philippines under the Social Science Division and Project Director for the Batanes Tourism and Hospitality Monitoring Center in UP Diliman.

In April 2023, I joined the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM), among the top five journals in the hospitality and tourism field, with the latest impact factor of 9.321.

Industry Experience

Holiday Inn Galleria Suites and Ciudad Fernandina Restaurant

Research Interest

My current research delves into the impacts of tourism on the Ivatans - the Indigenous Peoples of the Batanes. On 16 June 2023, Batanes joins the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatory (INSTO), a United Nations World Tourism Organization program. It is the first of its kind in the Philippines and I am honored and privileged to be part of the founding multi-disciplinary research team to examine the long-term sustainability of the province. We managed the Batanes Observatory in partnership with the province and stakeholders. 

Batanes, The Philippines – UNWTO INSTO:

Batanes Islands in the Philippines joins the UNWTO Network of Sustainable Tourism

Observatories