Brent Ritchie

Professor Brent Ritchie serves as Head of School at the School of Business, University of Queensland, where he has been employed since June 2008. His distinguished academic career spans multiple institutions including the University of Canberra and the School of Service Management at the University of Brighton UK. He earned his PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2000, establishing a foundation for his expertise in tourism management and risk assessment.

Professor Ritchie's research centers on tourism risk management, examining risk from both individual and organizational perspectives. His work explores how organizations develop risk attitudes and response strategies to effectively respond and recover from crises and disasters. He has conducted extensive research on tourist attitudes to risk and risk reduction behavior across diverse contexts including beach safety, Australian outbound travel, and travel to regions like the Middle East and Indonesia. His research on sustainable tourism, particularly carbon offsetting behavior in aviation contexts, has been supported by an ARC Discovery Grant and an ARC Linkage grant. Professor Ritchie's methodological approach integrates social and organizational psychology theories to understand the formation of risk attitudes and behaviors, often combining qualitative and quantitative research methods.

His publication record reveals a consistent trajectory of scholarly contribution, with recent work showing increased emphasis on environmental conservation issues, particularly regarding the Great Barrier Reef, while maintaining his core expertise in tourism disaster management. His interdisciplinary research spans tourism management, environmental science, psychology, and conservation policy, with recent studies incorporating physiological measures and experimental designs to assess risk communication effectiveness. This evolution reflects the growing intersection between tourism, environmental sustainability, and crisis management in an era of climate change.

Professor Ritchie has made significant editorial contributions, having served as former editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management and currently serving on the editorial boards of six international journals, including the prestigious Journal of Travel Research. His academic leadership extends to supervising 22 PhD students to completion, although he is currently unable to advise new doctoral candidates. His international recognition is evident through his position as Visiting Professor at Wakayama University's Center for Tourism Research in Japan and as an Affiliate of the Tourism Crisis Management Institute at the University of Florida, USA. With over twelve keynote speeches delivered at international conferences, Professor Ritchie has established himself as a leading authority in tourism risk management research globally.