MARINA NOVELLI

(PhD) Professor of Tourism and International Development at the University of Brighton (UK). She is an internationally renowned tourism policy, planning and development expert, having plaid core advisory roles for the World Bank, the EU, UNESCO, UNIDO, the UN World Tourism Organisation, the Commonwealth Secretariat, National Ministries and Tourism Boards, Regional Development Agencies and NGOs in Europe, Africa and Asia.

She is Academic Lead for the University of Brighton Responsible Futures’ Research and Enterprise Agenda, which is aimed at fostering interdisciplinary and international collaborations in areas associated with the SDGs. She is globally known for her research on niche tourism, tourism for sustainable development in developing and emerging economies and overtourism. Amongst her previous work relevant to this paper is her research on the impact of the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in West Africa. Her work has demonstrated to have impact far beyond tourism by contributing to more effective economic growth, improved environments and more inclusive societies.

CLAUDIO MILANO

Claudio Milano has a PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology for the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is member of the Anthropology Observatory of Urban Conflict (OACU) and Director of the Tourism Research, Dissemination and Innovation Centre (IDITUR-Ostelea). He has done research stays in the University of Brighton (England), Université Lumière Lyon II (France) and Stockholm University (Sweeden), he has also been invited scholar at the Universidade Federal de Piauí (Brazil), Strathmore University de Nairobi (Kenya), Naples Federico II University and University de Colombo (Sri Lanka).

His research deals with tourism practices and policies and their effects on urban and rural environments in Europe and Latin America. His works focus on an anthropological analysis of tourism and phenomena such as tourist saturation in urban settings have centred his interests. Dr. Milano has recently contributed to the report entitled “Overtourism: impact and possible policy responses” in the context of the European Union and financed by the Committee on Transports and Tourism (TRAN) of the European Parliament. He is nowadays working as Assistant Professor of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and tenured Associated Professor of The Ostelea School of Tourism and Hospitality, (Barcelona), attached to the University of Lleida.

IVAN MURRAY 

Assistant professor of the Department of Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). Doctor in Geography from the UIB (2012) and Master in Sciences from the University of Edinburgh (2000). Professor of the geography department of the UIB from 2002-2018. He has made stays at the Los Libertadores University (1997) and the Javeriana University (1998) in Bogotá (Colombia), the University of Edinburgh (1999-2000), the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (2013) and the National utonomous University of Nicaragua (2013).

His research focuses on critical economic geography combining different theoretical approaches such as political ecology, ecological economics and political economy. His main research interests are on the critical study of tourism and socio-ecological transformations of the Balearic Islands. He belongs to the GIST research groups (Grup d'Investigació en Sostenibilitat i Territori) of the UIB and GINTrans (Transdiciplinar Group on Socio-Ecological Transitions) of the UAM (Autonomous University   of Madrid).

In 2000 he started one of his main lines of research on biophysical accounting of the economy based on sustainability indicators. The critical study of the Balearic economic geography through techniques of spatial analysis, such as the study of land cover changes, the material flow analysis and ecological footprints, has been reflected in different publications on the social metabolism of the Balearic Islands and the related spatial transformations. In addition, within the study of the geohistory of Balearic capitalism, he has also developed other research related topics such as the analysis of the political economy of tourism capital and its spatial logics. Another line of research is based on the study of social metabolism and landscape transformations of agricultural ecosystems from an historical standpoint. These investigations have led to the development of a research agenda on Tourism Degrowth.

ANNA TORRES

Adjunt Professor at the Geography Department of the University of Barcelona (UB). She has a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), a Master in Territorial Planning and Environmental Management, and a PhD in Geography from the UB.

Awarded the 2015 Generalitat de Catalunya Environment Prize, her research activity focuses on tourism and sustainability in a broad sense, both at the level of territorial planning and management and the elaboration of specific indicators and indexes. He has participated in various research projects financed by public entities (Ministry, Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, Generalitat de Catalunya). Among the most recent are R&D projects Overtourism in Spanish coastal destinations. Tourism degrowth strategies (2019-2021), and Tourism and the city: analysis and evaluation of synergies, conflicts and challenges generated by tourism development in Spanish cities (2019-2021). Also noteworthy is the project Application and updating of the SIT-DIBA tourism indicator system for the sustainable management of destinations in the province of Barcelona (2017-2019) carried out for the Barcelona Provincial Council; and the study on Indicators of tourism sustainability in urban destinations. (2017-2019) carried out within the framework of the UB-CETT Chair in Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy.

She is a member of the consolidated research group ANTERRIT (Territorial Analysis and Regional Development) of the UB. And she participates in the Municipal Tourism and City Council of the Barcelona City Council, as an expert in sustainable tourism to advise the municipal government on initiatives, policies and strategic lines of municipal action.