An Analysis of Academic Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism Journals

Abstract

Despite the wide recognition of the importance of research in the academic community, the existing hospitality and tourism literature contains no published articles on the academic leadership of editors, associate editors, and editorial board members. This article presents the findings of a study that analyzed regional and institutional contributions to major research journals in the hospitality and tourism field. The empirical findings show that North America, and in particular the United States, has the largest regional and national share of editors, associate editors, and editorial board members, demonstrating the country’s clear academic leadership. When individual institutes are considered, it is evident that very few universities in the world can demonstrate leadership and that those that do are naturally universities that have a major specialization in tourism and hospitality.