Biographical note

Christian Dragin-Jensen is an associate professor at the Business Academy Southwest in Denmark. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Denmark. His main research interests are responsible tourism and destination development, city branding, and event management. Christian has worked for the better part of a decade in the hospitality industry in countries such as Portugal, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Mexico. Christian strives to create stronger ties between academia, industry, and the public through research and business development projects, sitting as a board member in different tourism-related institutions, as an advisor and sparring partner to industry and practitioner projects, and frequently appearing as a speaker at industry events and conferences, as well appearing in regional and national media. He is also the founder and leader of the Nordic and Baltic tourism education network, TourNord. His most recent projects have focused on regenerative and responsible tourism, the instagrammable hotel, and event innovation in times of crises. Christian has published in journals such as Cities, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, and the International Journal of Event and Festival Management.

Grzegorz Kwiatkowski is an associate professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Norway and Koszalin University of Technology in Poland.  He earned a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Southern Denmark and a master’s degree from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. Grzegorz's research focuses on the regional impact of events and tourism, with a particular interest in the economic effects of small-scale events on host destinations and the entrepreneurial ecosystems of food festivals. His teaching expertise lies in the areas of event management, tourism, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He has contributed to publications in journals such as the Journal of Rural Studies, Event Management, Current Issues in Tourism, and the Scandinavian Journal of Tourism and Hospitality.

Ove Oklevik is an associate professor of marketing, tourism and statistics at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway, and at WSB Merito University in Gdansk, Poland. He holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Oslo and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). His main research interests are consumer and tourist behavior. Ove has taught courses in macroeconomics, statistics, sustainable marketing, brands management, and tourism management for a period of over 20 years. He has supervised approximately 100 B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. students. He has also extensive experience as a consultant for the tourism industry in Norway and has previously worked with statistical analyses in the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Digitalization for a period altogether six years. Ove has published in journals like the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, and Event Management.