A Portrait of Douglas G. Pearce

I am very pleased to be offered the opportunity to write a portrait of Professor Douglas G. Pearce for Anatolia. Although an autobiographic account of Doug’s evolution from ‘Geographer to Tourism Geographer to Tourism Management scholar’ was published in Stephen Smith’s 2010 book The Discovery of Tourism, a comprehensive account of a four decade long contribution to our field is arguably not adequately established without insights on the breadth and depth of a pioneering scholar’s contributions by his colleagues and peers. In this context I wholeheartedly embrace this opportunity to share the views of several (indeed I hope most) of Doug’s colleagues, peers and mentees about his numerous, long-standing and enduring contributions to our field. My own position is best described by stating that I reside in both the colleague and mentee cohorts. I have had the pleasure of being Doug’s colleague in the Tourism Management Group at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand, and co-authored of several of Doug’s publications. But at the same time I have benefitted greatly from Doug’s advice, guidance and overall leadership of the VUW Tourism Management Group and as such regard him as a longstanding mentor.