Craig Webster

Craig Webster (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Hospitality and Food Management in the Department of Management at Ball State University, USA. He studied Government and German Literature at St. Lawrence University in New York State, received an MA and Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in New York State and an MBA in Intercollege, Cyprus. He has taught at Binghamton University, Ithaca College, the College of Tourism and Hotel Management in Nicosia, and the University of Nicosia. He has also lectured at several other educational institutions in Poland, Denmark, Bulgaria.

His research interests include the political economy of tourism, tourism futures, robots and artificial intelligence in service industries, and public opinion analysis. Dr. Webster is the Editor-in-Chief of Tourism Today and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals. In addition, he has published in many peer-reviewed journals in the fields of tourism and hospitality, including Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Tourism Economics, Tourism Geographies, the Journal of Tourism Futures, the International Journal of Tourism Cities, Event Management, and many others. In addition, he has published on topics in the social sciences in such outlets as Ethnopolitics and the Cyprus Review, among others. He is also co-editor of the book “Future Tourism: Political, Social, and Economic Challenges,” an edited book published by Routledge. His most recent book is Emerald Publishing’s “Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality,” co-edited with Stanislav Ivanov.

He has participated in many projects in hospitality and tourism funded by the European Union and has extensive experience on consulting projects in the USA and the European Union. His most recent consultancy was done in conjunction with the Wells County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development in which he made a comprehensive research project to develop a strategic plan to develop tourism development and encourage visitors to Wells County, Indiana. He currently teaches courses in Hospitality Management at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business.