The GLTRG committee seeks to promote tourism and leisure research through engaging stakeholders and driving progressive research agendas.

July 2026 – Become a GLTRG committee member!
New Committee members 2026/27

Are you interested in tourism and leisure research? The Geographies of Leisure & Tourism Research Group is seeking expressions of interest to fill the following committee member posts at the AGM to be held at the 2026 Royal Geographical Society with IBG International Conference in London, in a hybrid format, on September 2nd, 1310hrs (GMT), Drayton Rm, Hybrid 4. 

Treasurer – As part of the core committee, the Treasurer overseas the financial business of the research group, for example: organising the financial reports for the annual AGM; updating of the constitution when necessary; and working with the Chair to ensure annual reporting as per the RGS guidelines. The post holder must be a current member of the RGS-IBG and resident in the United Kingdom. The term is for 3 years. 

Postgraduate Representative - As an active member of the committee, this position is specifically held by a current (at the time of the AGM) postgraduate student member of the GLTRG. The post holder is responsible for promoting postgraduate interests and needs to the wider GLTRG and maintaining connections with the wider postgraduate community through the RGS Postgraduate Forum and other social media channels, supporting postgraduate student members, and planning and executing events and workshops. The term is for 1 year. 

Chair – The RGS-IBG seeks an eminent, visionary academic to serve as the GLTRG Chair. In this pivotal leadership role, the post holder will spearhead the Research Group’s strategic direction, fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and collaborative scholarly community. The post holder will champion sub-disciplinary innovations, oversee the curation of high-impact sessions at the annual international conference, and facilitate funding opportunities for early-career researchers. Serving as a vital conduit between the Group’s membership and the Society’s broader governance structure, the post holder will actively advance geographical knowledge, advocate for the discipline’s impact, and drive global research excellence. This role is for a 3-year term, and the post holder must be a member of the RGS with IBG. 

Events & Coordinator – The RGS-IBG seeks an organised and enthusiastic academic to join the GLTRG. In this vital role, the post holder will lead the planning, promotion, and execution of the group’s standalone workshops, webinars, and networking events. The post holder will also serve as the primary liaison for curating and coordinating GLTRG-sponsored sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference. This position offers an excellent opportunity to shape sub-disciplinary dialogue, support early-career researchers, and expand your professional network within the global geographical community. The role is for a 3-year term. 

Any tourism or leisure scholar with a particular interest in geographies of tourism and leisure is welcome to apply, but please note that for some roles, you must be a member of the RGS. Please email nominations to the GLTRG email at j.hall@yorksj.ac.uk no later than August 21st, 2026. We welcome expressions of interest in the form of a short statement (no more than 200 words) explaining why you want to take on the role. Attendees at the AGM are also welcome to express an interest during the AGM. 

📆 Expressions of Interest by August 21st, 2026 to Jenny Hall: j.hall@yorksj.ac.uk
💫 This is a great opportunity to work with an international team, to network and to gain experience in organising scientific events, publications, and awards.

Dr Tijana Rakić, Chair

Dr Tijana Rakić is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research projects, publications and interests predominantly lie within the themes of visual research methods; world heritage, tourism and national identity; tourism, leisure and art; and representations of places, cultures and identities in promotional materials and popular media. Her research is informed by both cultural geography and visual anthropology and in addition to being a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she is also a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute. 

Prior to being elected as the Chair or the GLTRG, Tijana has been a part of the GLTRG committee in a number of roles including ordinary committee member, secretary, and Interim Chair. She is currently also one of the co-editors of the group’s book series titled Current Developments in the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism (with J.-A. Lester).

Tijana is an Associate Professor at De Montfort University (for her staff page please see link) where she leads the Cultural Management Subject Group and the BA (Hons) International Tourism and Hospitality Management programme.  

Dr Jen Hall, Secretary

Dr Jen Hall Dr Jenny Hall is an Associate Professor in Tourism and Events at York St John University, she is a cultural geographer specialising in the geographies of tourism, leisure, sport, and heritage. Her work is interdisciplinary and focuses on issues of social and ecological justice.  Jenny has published widely on the intersectional experiences of inequality in adventure, which has influenced policy in mountaineering organisations in the United Kingdom. Recent publications include edited books ‘Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering: Moving Mountains‘,  ‘The Mountain and the Politics of Representation‘  and a chapter in ‘Other Everests: One Mountain Many Worlds‘. Jenny is currently working with Mountain Rescue England and Wales to understand women’s experiences of mountain rescue and to create a practical toolkit to enable rescue teams to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

As an expert in governance and policy in tourism concerning urban heritage, spatial justice, and regenerative tourism, Jenny is currently working with North York Moors National Park on a five-year research project to investigate climate crisis and conservation through public engagement programmes.  Jenny is a Fellow of and Secretary of The Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society,  and a member of the Other Everests AHRC Research Network. Jenny has professional experience managing cultural regeneration projects in the public sector establishing and leading major venues, festivals, and cultural development programmes. I am a passionate mountaineer and a member of her local mountain rescue team.

You can follow her at @laughinggrouse / www.jennyhallgeographer.com / LinkedIn

Dr Jaeyeon Choe, Treasurer

Dr. Jaeyeon Choe obtained her PhD in Tourism Management and Cultural Anthropology from Pennsylvania State University. As an international educator, she has been invited as a visiting scholar to Canada, Indonesia, Finland, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Her research areas centre around wellness, spiritual, and religious tourism, sustainable community development, and the well-being of marginalised communities. She is a Lecturer at the Glasgow School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. She also works as a visiting professor at Hue University, Vietnam. She has delivered multiple keynote speeches at tourism and geography conferences in Asia and Europe. She serves as an associate editor for the Tourism Geographies journal and on the editorial board of the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. She co-founded the Refugee and Migrant Leisure Network with community organisations and local councils based in southern England. She is co-editor of “Pilgrimage beyond the Officially Sacred: Understanding the Geographies of Religion and Spirituality in Sacred Travel”; and “Migration, Tourism and Social Sustainability,” both published by Routledge.

Dr Fiona Eva Bakas, Communications

Fiona Eva Bakas, PhD, is a critical tourism researcher and lecturer with international teaching experience. Fiona is a collaborating researcher in the CREATOUR Creative Tourism Observatory, Visiting Research Fellow at the Center of Excellence in Food, Tourism & Leisure- Deree, The American College of Greece and associate member of NGO Equality in Tourism. Her research interests focus on creative tourism, gender in tourism labour, community-led festivals, tourism in marginalized areas and mountains, female entrepreneurship, qualitative methods, participatory action methods, and innovative educational technologies. Fiona holds a PhD in Tourism (Otago University, New Zealand), has 20 years of varied work experience (corporate and academic), and is currently an assistant tourism professor at the Institute of Geography and Territorial Planning, University of Lisbon, Portugal.


Dr Alberto Amore, Conference & Event Coordinator

Alberto Amore, PhD is Assistant Professor in Geography of the Anthropocene in the Geography Research Unit at the University of Oulu, Finland. He is affiliated scholar for Biodiverse Anthropocene (ANTS) and Frontiers in Arctic and Global Resilience (FRONT) and the Tourism Geographies and Sustainable Mobilities (TOGSUM) research group. 

His research interests include tourism and public policy, governance and metagovernance of destinations, destination resilience, spatial planning, urban regeneration, regenerative tourism, tourism crises and natural hazards and tourism and climate change. He has written more than 70 outputs on different topics in prominent tourism journals, including Annals of Tourism Research and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. He is currently Associate Editor for Tourism Management Perspectives and Social Media Editor for Current Issues in Tourism. He has been a member of the GLTRG Committee since 2020.


Dr Anna de Jong, Awards & Prizes Coordinator

Anna de Jong is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism at the University of Glasgow. Prior to joining Glasgow, she held a Lectureship at the University of Surrey and a Postdoctoral position at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Anna is an interdisciplinary social scientist, with a background in human geography and tourism management. Her research takes focus with the relationships between tourism and place, guided by wider concerns of inequality and accessibility.


Christina Muhs, Postgraduate Representative

Christina Muhs is Christina Muhs is a PhD Candidate in Tourism at the University of Algarve, Portugal (UALG). She holds an MSc with Distinction in Tourism and Event Management from Canterbury Christ Church University (UK) and a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Tourism Management from Stenden University (NL).                                                                                                                    

She currently acts as Coordinator of the PhD Network at the Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being (CinTurs), where she is also a PhD Student member. Her research interests involve hypermobile lifestyles, niche travel groups and festival attendance motivations.