Peter Mason

Biography

Professor Peter Mason
Dr Peter Mason, who is originally from Norwich, UK is a British and New Zealand citizen, and has taught for over forty years. He has written four single authored books focusing on tourism, including Tourism Impacts, Planning and Management, and in addition over fifty refereed publications, as well as giving presentations, including keynote speeches, at over forty international conferences.  
He was previously Professor of Tourism and Head of the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing at Victoria University, Melbourne.  Prior to that he was Professor of Tourism Management and Head of the Department of Tourism, Leisure and Sport Management at Bedfordshire University for nine years.   In a career of teaching, supervising and researching in higher education spanning more than twenty five years, in addition to lecturing in the UK, he has taught in Australia, New Zealand, France and the Middle East.
His research interests and publications have evolved from a concern with tourism impacts to a focus on tourism planning and management.  He has published articles in the top rated tourism journals, supervised/examined over two hundred Master’s dissertations, supervised British students to successful PhD completion and examined PhDs in the UK and Australia.  He is one of a very few tourism academics to have taught in, and then advised on, four levels of the education sector: primary, secondary, further and higher education.  
As Professor and Head of Department at Bedfordshire University, he was a member of the group submitted to the UK Research Assessment Exercise that achieved the highest rating (4 out of 5) of any university entering 'Tourism' separately. In 2010, as Head of School at Victoria University he led his team to successful European Foundation for Management Development Programme Assessment Scheme (EPAS) accreditation for undergraduate courses in hospitality and tourism – the first Australian university to achieve this particular status.
He currently has a fractional position as Professor of Tourism Management at Bedfordshire University, UK and he also holds a fractional position in Tourism and Creative Industries at London Metropolitan University and is Visiting Professor of Tourism at London South Bank University. He also lectures in Tourism and Hospitality and supervises Master's dissertations at the Ecole Supérieure d'Hôtellerie, Paris and lectures in Event Management at the Ecole de Management de Normandie, France.  

Education

PhD, 1996, M.Phil, 1988, BSc.Econ 1973.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

His research interests and publications have evolved from a concern with tourism impacts to a focus on tourism planning and management.  Tourism education, within the formal sector (which was the focus of his PhD) and when used as a technique in tourism management, has been a major sub-theme of his research.

He has been involved in significant amounts of quality assurance activity, particularly validation panel work and external examining in the UK and other areas of the world. He is an Associate of the UK Quality Assurance Agency, and has worked for over a decade on behalf of the Estonian Ministry of Higher Education, chairing international committees evaluating the country's Tourism and Business curriculum.

Personal Interests

Peter enjoys cycling in Norfolk, Holland and Germany with his wife Patsy, listening to his daughter Jess  singing her self-penned songs and accompanying herself on guitar, watching his son Will play cricket and  being taken for a walk by his rather energetic dog Lulu.  From the age of seven, he has been, and continues to be, a supporter of Norwich City Football Club!  

Books