Professor J.R. Brent Ritchie awarded 2004 WTO Ulysses Prize

The 2004 WTO.Ulysses Prize has been awarded to Professor J.R. Brent Ritchie, who holds the Professorship of Tourism Management in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary in Canada.

Dr. Ritchie serves as Chair of the University's World Tourism Education and Research Centre and was elected as the Founding Chair of the World Tourism Organization's Education Council in 2001. The prize has been awarded to him for "his scientific contribution to the theory and practice of Tourism Policy as well as his leadership over the past 30 years in the area of tourism education and research".

The WTO.Ulysses Awards were created to foster innovation and the application of knowledge in tourism. The institutional category of the award is given to innovative projects undertaken by tourism destinations, enterprises and institutions. In the present case, however, the Award is being bestowed upon an individual scholar in recognition of work supporting applied knowledge related to policy and strategy for tourism destinations and enterprises.

In both of these categories: the institution (WTO.Ulysses Award); and the scientist (WTO.Ulysses Prize), the recipient of this honour from the World Tourism Organization must have made outstanding and innovative contributions to the development and application of knowledge in tourism.

Professor Ritchie, who is well known in academic, government and professional circles, has made a substantial intellectual contribution to tourism since the early 1970s. Author of extensive publications on tourism and related topics in leading journals in the field, Dr. Ritchie is also the co-author of numerous books, among which are: Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies (now in its 9th edition and widely regard as the leading introductory textbook in the field of tourism); and Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Research: A Handbook for Managers and Researchers. His most recent book, wThe Competitive Destination: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective, has been endorsed by the World Tourism Organization as a theoretical and practical framework for effective Destination Management. He also currently serves on the Editorial Review Boards of numerous scholarly leading journals in the field.

Dr. Ritchie's ongoing research interests include the study of tourism destination management, destination competitiveness and sustainability, travel destination images and branding, tourism policy, planning and development, managing quality service in tourism, regulatory policy in the airline industry, enhancing productivity and competitiveness in the industry and managing the tourism impacts of such mega-events and attractions as the XV Olympic Winter Games and world expositions. His current active research focuses on destination competitiveness, destination branding, destination management, the environmental impacts of visitor behaviours, and the tourism experience.

By designating Professor Ritchie as the recipient of 2004 WTO Ulysses Prize, the World Tourism Organization said it seeks to underscore the importance of knowledge creation, as well as its dissemination and application, to today's tourism industry, to the public-private management of tourism destinations and to National Tourism Administrations. The first WTO.Ulysses Prize was awarded last year to Professor Donald E. Hawkins of The George Washington University's School of Business and Public Management.