Cevat Tosun

Cevat Tosun is the Eisenhower Chair and Professor of Tourism Studies and Management and the director of the MS in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management program at the GW School of Business (GWSB).

Dr. Tosun is an educator, consultant, speaker, and researcher in the area of international tourism management. He worked as a tenured full professor at three universities for more than 14 years. He also worked as a senior business development consultant in the private sector for various international companies and organizations in the UK, France, Austria, Northern Ireland and Turkey. In particular, he contributed to the development of more than fifteen technical assistance project proposals with a multi-million Euros budget funded by the European Union (EU) and Plan Blue/UNEP-MAP in addition to more than ten grant scheme projects funded by the EU, he was also one of the key experts, consultants or coordinators in the implementation process of some of these projects.

Dr. Tosun completed his undergraduate studies at the top of his class. During his primary and university education, he gained a great deal of industry experience by working in the tourism and hospitality sector in various roles (e.g., restaurant manager, reception clerk, hotel manager, waiter, and bellboy). He received his Ph.D. degree in the area of international tourism management and Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in tourism planning from the Scottish Hotel School, Business Faculty of University of Strathclyde, UK, and his MSc degree in the area of hospitality and tourism management from the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Graduate School of Social Science, Erciyes University, Turkey. Earning his graduate degrees in both international tourism management and hospitality management at two of the leading programs in his field at two different countries with different socio-cultural and educational contexts has enriched his vision and teaching philosophy. He has more than 28 years of international teaching experience in business management, and tourism and hospitality management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Tosun has taught courses in Research Methods, Entrepreneurship, Destination Marketing, Tourism Economics and Tourism Policy and Planning (George Washington University School of Business), Tourism Promotion (Northern Iowa University, USA), Tourism Impacts (Bournemouth University, UK), Strategic Management (Emirate Academy of Hospitality Management, UEA), Tourism Product Quality Management and Macro Tourism Economic Analysis at Macau University of Science and Technology as well as numerous other tourism and hospitality courses (Bilkent and Gazi Universities, Turkey). He integrates real-world industry problems into his course assignments such as employee relations, destination management, destination capacity development, indigenous community tourism, and developing strategies for marketing challenges of the hospitality industry. He has supervised many undergraduate and graduate students at both the Master’s and Doctoral levels, and has worked with students with a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. He has been invited by the European Union Foreign Affairs General Directorate, Arizona State University (US), Strathclyde University (UK), London Metropolitan University (UK), Tsuru University (Japan), South China University of Technology, Macau University, Gümü?hane University and Erzincan Universities (Turkey) to give talks on a wide variety of topics, including sustainable tourism development, impacts of climate change on tourism, community participation in the tourism development process, and tourism impacts. Moreover, while he was invited to deliver a keynote speech and lead a discussion on the topic of “Promoting Tourism to Historic Religious Sites” on October 17, 2023, by the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program, he also acted as a trainer for UNWTO 8th Training Program on “Capacity Building for Sustainable Tourism Planning and Development,” from November 27 to December 4, 2019, in Macau, China.

Dr. Tosun has held several administrative positions, including the founding director of the School of Tourism Management (STHM) at MKU for more than six years, department head for more than 13 years, and postgraduate program director for 13 years at several universities, where he spearheaded the development of the school and departments. While he was heavily involved in line management of academic staff, curriculum design, and research development during his administrative duties, he also served as a member of the Council of Strategy Planning for three years at MKU and as tourism faculty coordinator of the Academic Evaluation and Quality Improvement Board for more than four years at Gazi University.

Dr. Tosun has served on the editorial board member for journals; as a reviewer for leading hospitality and tourism journals, and as a reviewer for national and international conferences. His work has appeared at a wide spectrum of conferences (e.g. The Western Social Science Association (WSSA) Conference, I-CHRIE Annual Conference, EuroCHRIE Congress, International Travel and Tourism: Policy, and Law and Management and Rural Tourism Management: Sustainable Options, International Conference), as well as in top-tier journals (e.g. Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Geoforum, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Economics, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management) in addition to various book chapters, international technical reports for Plan Blue/UNEP and white papers. His publications have received around 11,000 citations per the Google Scholar Citation Index. Moreover, he is recognized as “the most cited author with a total of 983 citations for his four papers, making him the most influential reference author” in the area of research on “meaningful community participation for effective development of sustainable tourism.”