Place of birth: Chiswick, West London

Family: three grown-up children

Education: Chiswick County Grammar School, Garnett College; MA, Social Anthropology of Tourism, MA, Education and Training, Roehampton Institute; PhD, Tourism Planning, University of Surrey

Career: Peter Burns joined the School of Service Management in 2000 as Professor of International Tourism and Development and founding Director of CENTOPS. Prior to this, he was Head of the Department of Leisure, Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Luton (which attained RAE Grade 4 in 2001). His research interests include the roles and responsibilities throughout the tourism value chain in climate change and the use of private archive material and interviews to capture experiences and memories of the first generation of post-war tourists. Outputs include a short film, which will be presented at the CENTOPS 2007 conference. Peter Burns is the author of the internationally acclaimed publication, An Introduction to Tourism and Anthropology, which has been translated into Portuguese. As a consultant, Professor Burns specializes in tourism master planning for developing countries and emerging markets. In particular he has an interest in strategic policy making for sustainable human development and identifying solutions for tourism's human impacts, and preparing tourism awareness programmes. He has extensive international experience working with communities to help them achieve better education, participation and training through the use of tourism development for poverty alleviation. He has undertaken research and consultancy work in over 25 countries, including the Middle East, and recently led the development of the national tourism awareness programme for Kuwait as part of their Strategic Tourism Development Plan (with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and Deloitte & Touche). He is co-editor of Tourism and Hospitality: Planning & Development (see url below) and a member of the editorial board of Mobilities journal. Peter Burns is a panellist on the National Geographic Destination Stewardship Survey 2006 and on the Selection Committee for World Travel and Tourism Council's Tourism for Tomorrow Awards 2007. He is a member of the UN World Tourism Organization Education Council, an Executive Committee member of the Association for Tourism in Higher Education and a member of the Tourism Society. He is also an elected member of International Committee of the Association of Tourism and Leisure Studies (ATLAS), Founding Chairman of the ATLAS Tourism and Social Identities research group and Co-ordinator of ATLAS Europe. Professor Burns is an elected Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Publications include: Tourism Research Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice (co-editor) 2005, Tourism and Social Identities (co-editor) 2006, Tourism and Politics; Global Frameworks and Local Realities (co-editor) 2007; numerous book chapters and articles in professional journals on sustainable tourism

Contact details: Address: School of Service Management, University of Brighton, Greynore Building, Darley Road, Eastbourne, BN20 7UR , England; Tel: +44 (0)1273 643633; Fax: +44 (0)1273 643949; Email: P.M.Burns@brighton.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/ssm/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1479053X.asp/ .