Voices
Keynote Speakers
Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage is gaining prominence around the world as a catalyst for socio-economic transformation. Globally more than 350 million people travel for Religious and Pilgrimage purposes every year, making this as a major segment of tourism industry. Eminent members in the field of Religious and Pilgrimage Tourism will be sharing their experiences, which will provide valuable insights to explore future research potential in this field.
Carlos Fernandes
Ph.D., is Associate Professor with Aggregation in Tourism at the Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Lectures in the Bachelor’s in Tourism, the Master’s in Tourism and Innovation and is Course Leader of the Bachelor’s degree in Gastronomy ad Culinary Arts. He obtained his B.A. degree at Syracuse University (USA), M.A. degree at Rutgers University (USA) and Ph.D. at Bournemouth University (UK). His interests include tourism innovation, tourism as a development strategy, gastronomy, religious and diaspora tourism. A member of the editorial board of various tourism related scientific journals and book review editor of the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. Researcher at the Centre for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism (CiTUR), Portugal.
Rana P.B. Singh
(b. 1950-) has been a professor of Cultural Landscapes and Heritage Studies at Banaras Hindu University, India (1998-2016). Since his PhD on ‘Sacred Sites and Religious Landscapes’ (1974), he has continued to study the theme, with case studies from North India, and has conducted field studies in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Korea, and China. His publications on these themes include 16 books (2 in press) and 154 papers in reputed national and international journals. He has presented his studies at various international conferences. He is a visiting professor at the Gifu Women’s University in Japan. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Geography, and the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. Presently, he is working on the interfaces between pilgrimages and heritage. He lives in the holy city of Varanasi, India.
Ahmad Albattat
is an Associate Professor in Graduate School of Management, Management and Science University, Malaysia. He is a Visiting Professor and External Examiner in Medan Academy of Tourism. He received PhD in Hospitality Management from University Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia. His teaching and consultancy fields include hospitality management, events management, research methodology, strategic management and final research projects. His research areas include hospitality management, hotel, tourism, events, emergency planning, disaster management, sustainable development goals and human resource. He is an active member of several Scientific and Editorial Board of International journals, reviewer, author and editor for book projects.
