Rate My Professor Marianna Sigala

Professor Marianna Sigala is Professor of Marketing at the University of Newcastle, Australia, within the Newcastle Business School, and serves as Director of the International Hotel School. She possesses a PhD, a Master of Science, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analysis. Her international academic career includes prior appointments as Professor of Tourism and Director of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management at the University of South Australia from 2015 to 2021, Professor of Digital Transformation & Tourism at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, Professor of Marketing at the University of Piraeus and the University of the Aegean in Greece, and roles at the University of Strathclyde and Westminster University in the UK. With a family background in hospitality, Sigala combines professional industry experience with her academic expertise. Her research specializations encompass digital technologies and their applications and impacts in tourism and hospitality, services and experience management, and wine tourism. She investigates how tourism professionals and policymakers can utilize digital tools to enhance performance, competitiveness, and stakeholder quality of life, while holistically considering socio-cultural, environmental, political, privacy, psychological, security, legal, and moral implications. Key research areas include social media strategies for destination marketing, technology-driven sustainable destination management, and experience design in wine tourism integrating culture, heritage, and art.

Sigala has authored nine books and numerous peer-reviewed papers, including 'Understanding the impact of ChatGPT on tourism and hospitality: Trends, prospects and research agenda' in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2024), 'Metaverse marketing: How the metaverse will shape the future of consumer research and practice' in Psychology & Marketing (2023), and 'Tourism and COVID-19: impacts and Implications for advancing and resetting industry and research' in the Journal of Business Research (2021), which ranked 14th in Shugan’s Top 20 Marketing Meta Journal papers. Her scholarship has amassed over 32,000 citations on Google Scholar. Among her honors are the EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award (2016), Wine Travel Awards Author of the Year (award winner 2023; public voting winner 2024), PRIX de l’OIV 2021 for her chapter in Wine Tourism in Australia, and inclusion in Stanford University’s top 2% of scientists worldwide, ranked 32nd in tourism, leisure, and sports. She has delivered more than 200 keynote presentations globally. Sigala founded the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases, serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management and co-editor of the Journal of Service Theory & Practice, and has held leadership positions as past President of EuroCHRIE and executive board member of ICHRIE, IFITT, and CAUTHE. At the International Hotel School, she promotes work-integrated learning through industry partnerships to address tourism sector labor shortages.