Hilal Erkuş

Hilal Erkuş serves as a full professor at Akdeniz University's Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban and Regional Planning in Antalya, Turkey. Her distinguished career spans urban economic development research with international collaborations across Turkey, the Netherlands, and the UK.

She earned her PhD from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2008, where her thesis on tourism clustering and networking received METU's Best PhD Thesis award. Her postdoctoral work at the University of Amsterdam (2009-2010) focused on urban tourism governance and global value chains in tourism cities, followed by contributions to the COST A26 Project (2005-2008) examining multi-level governance in European city-regions.

Her research portfolio centers on:

• Economic diversification/homogenization in tourism cities (TUBITAK 1001 project)
• Economic resilience during crises and firm survival strategies (The Science Academy project)
• Fictional expectations for tourism cities facing climate change, political instability, and economic shocks (TÜBA-funded project)

She actively shapes science policy through collaborations with the Regional Studies Association as Turkey Ambassador and serves on Akdeniz University's Research and Development Commission to advance international projects.

Key recognitions include:

• METU Best PhD Thesis Award
• TUBITAK Project Performance Award (2019)
• Pioneering Science Academy award for urban/regional science
• TÜBA Outstanding Young Scientist Award

Through her TÜBA-supported research on future strategies for European cities, she bridges academic inquiry with practical science policy development while mentoring regional studies through the Regional Studies Association's ambassadorship program.