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Brent Lovelock ImageHead of Department
Co-Director, Centre for Recreation Research

Office OBS 9.01
Tel +64 3 479 8069
Email brent.lovelock@otago.ac.nz

Professor Brent Lovelock joined the department in 2000. He holds an honours degree in Forestry Science and his PhD explored visitor management in protected natural areas. Brent's research focuses on sustainable tourism development, addressing social and environmental outcomes. Much of his research has involved community based tourism, and how we can bring value to communities through tourism, and also on the visitor experience and impacts within natural areas. This has involved working with communities and in applied research with key stakeholders such as the Department of Conservation and Fish and Game New Zealand. Brent also has an interest in the ethics of tourism, his research exploring a number of ethical quandaries in tourism, including: the ethics of consumptive wildlife tourism (hunting and fishing); travel for medical and dental tourism; and also travel to politically-contested destinations. He has co-authored a text on these and related topics The Ethics of Tourism – Critical and Applied Perspectives. Brent sits on the editorial boards of Tourism Planning & Development, Journal of Ecotourism, and Human Dimensions of Wildlife.

PhD supervision

Brent has supervised 25 PhDs to completion, many of these addressing aspects of community based tourism and destination development. Brent's research involves both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Recent PhD completions

  • Arif Hoque: The role of NGOs in indigenous community based tourism in Bangladesh
  • Chiara Massacesi: Food heritage and tourism in the Italian Dolomites
  • Gebeyaw Ambelu Degarege: Food security for tourism destinations Ethiopia
  • Leo Hu: Water use planning and policy for hotels in Singapore
  • Sandeep Basnyat: The role of unions in the hotel and airline sector in Nepal
  • Susan Weidmann: Dark tourism, imagery and marketing in Salem, USA

Current PhD supervisions

  • Andrus Nomm: Destination management scenarios for climate change action
  • Claire Dowsett: Social Dimensions of invasive species- wild pigs, New Zealand
  • Olivia Su: Loyalty programmes- airlines and hotels
  • Mahdis Madani: The role of bridging organisations in recreational fishery management in New Zealand
  • Matthias Spall: Social Dimensions of invasive species -Himalayan tahr in the Southern Alps of New Zealand
  • Saiful Islam: Sustainable tourism indicators for indigenous communities in Bangladesh

Departmental roles

Brent is currently Head of Department and also provides student advice. He sits on Senate and is on the Board of Studies for the Bachelor of Arts (Tourism Languages and Cultures) and the Higher Education Development Centre. He teaches mainly in the field of Destination Development, at both the undergraduate and Masters levels. Brent is Co-Director of the Centre for Recreation Research.

Current tourism research projects

Bad Nature: The social dimensions of invasive species in New Zealand

Currently Brent is leading a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden-funded project (2020–2023) exploring the relationships that different communities (e.g. tourists and the tourism industry, Māori, Pasifika, and recent immigrants and young people) have with invasive species in New Zealand and how this may affect future management of these species.
Bad Nature research project

Research collaborators:

  • Associate Professor Anna Carr (Otago) Associate Investigator
  • Claire Dowsett and Matthias Spall (PhD students) and Anna Clark (Research Assistant)

Publications

Lovelock, B., Ji, Y., Carr, A., & Blye, C.-J. (2023). Tourists’ (mis)understandings of nature: International and domestic visitors’ perceptions of invasive alien plants in New Zealand. Invasive Plant Science & Management. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1017/inp.2023.30

Lovelock, B., Burnett, A., Moon, G., Roessler, D., & Lyons, K. (2023). Returning home with a bargain or a burden? New Zealand dentists' perceptions of the impact of dental tourism on patients and practices. New Zealand Dental Journal, 119(3), 135-147.

Hayes, S., Lovelock, B., & Carr, A. (2023). ‘They sure do have a pretty colour palette!’: The problematic promotion of invasive species as tourism icons. Tourism Recreation Research. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/02508281.2023.2199613

Lovelock, B., Degarege, G., & Adeloye, D. (2023). Growing agri-heritage tourism in Africa: Challenges and opportunities. In D. J. Timothy (Ed.), Cultural heritage and tourism in Africa. (pp. 137-153). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003153955-8

Lovelock, B., Tuipoloa-Utuva, L., & Carr, A. (2023). Sustainable tourism planning in Samoa: Identifying the challenges and opportunities. In M. L. Stephenson (Ed.), Routledge handbook on tourism and small island states in the Pacific. (pp. 313-327). London, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429019968-26

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