Maria Tugores Ques

Dr. Maria Tugores Ques is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Applied Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), where she has been a faculty member since 2004. She specializes in labor and education economics, industrial economics, and tourism economics, with particular expertise in youth employment, gender issues, innovation in tourism, and the impact of P2P technologies on the tourism sector.

Dr. Tugores Ques earned her Economics degree from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1995, where she received the extraordinary prize of the degree. She completed her PhD in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2000. Her academic journey includes teaching positions at both Carlos III University of Madrid and UIB across undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs.

Her research spans three main areas: labor and education economics with a focus on youth transitions and gender; industrial economics applied to tourism markets; and innovation in tourism destinations. She has developed significant expertise in analyzing how digital transformation, particularly P2P technologies, affects traditional tourism employment and business models. Her work often combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary approaches.

Dr. Tugores Ques has published extensively in high-impact journals including Annals of Tourism Research (twice), Tourism Economics (six times), International Journal of Lifelong Education, and International Journal of Adolescence and Youth. Her publications show a clear evolution from traditional tourism economics toward more contemporary issues of digital transformation, innovation, and the human dimensions of tourism development. Recent work increasingly focuses on the intersection of education, gender, and employment outcomes for young people in tourism-dependent economies.

• Best Article Award, 4th Conference of the International Association for Tourism Economics, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2013
• Extraordinary Prize of the Degree, Universitat de Barcelona
• Two Six-Year Research Terms (Sexenios) granted by the Spanish Ministry

Dr. Tugores Ques has supervised two doctoral theses to completion: Vicente Ramos's work on tourism models and labor markets (2004), and Mariona Luis's research on innovation in mature sun and beach destinations (2021). She has participated in numerous competitive research projects, including six major projects in the last decade such as 'Retos de las tecnologías P2P del sector del alojamiento: competencia, empleo y desarrollo local (P2PIMPACTS)' and 'Itinerarios de éxito y abandono en la formación profesional.' Her work has secured significant funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, the Balearic Islands government, and the European Union.

She is an active member of several research groups including Cultural Tourism (CULTUR LAB), Economic Analysis and Modelling (GAME), and Research and innovation in vocational education and training (LABVET). Her leadership extends to academic administration, having served as Director of the Hospitality School of the Balearic Islands (2015-2023) and Director of the Department of Applied Economics (2007-2015).