Professor Pierre Benckendorff

Professor Benckendorff is an award-winning educator and researcher specialising in tourism, technology, design, higher education and training. He completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate training at James Cook University, where he was awarded a University Medal. He was awarded a national citation for contributions to student learning in 2007.

Over the last two decades, Pierre has also been actively involved in a number of academic and industry research projects totalling over AUD 1 million in grant funding. He has also worked with state government and tourism operators on a number of regional projects. He has co-authored over 100 publications in leading international journals and is a regular speaker at tourism research conferences. Pierre is on the editorial board of several leading academic journals and is a regular reviewer of papers. He has also co-authored one of the leading textbooks on tourism and information technology. Pierre has a strong track record supervising honours, masters and PhD projects in tourism and education.

Pierre has held several teaching and learning leadership positions at The University of Queensland and James Cook University in Australia. He is a former Chair of the Queensland Tourism Awards judging panel and a judge for the Australian Tourism Awards. His passion for travel and tourism has taken him to some of the world’s leading theme parks and airports, the major cities of Europe and North America, the African Savannah and the bustling streets of Asia. He has also travelled extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand.