Rate My Professor Tamara Young

Associate Professor Tamara Young is based in the Newcastle Business School at the University of Newcastle, focusing on tourism. She holds a PhD, a Bachelor of Business, and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours), all obtained from the University of Newcastle. Her professional appointments include Vice-Chair of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education since March 2022, Director of Education, Research and Training at the Tourism Hunter Board of Management from January 2013 to April 2015, and a position on the Academic Board of the Management Institute of Australia since January 2014. Young has received extensive recognition for her contributions, including the Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence and Contribution to Student Learning in 2014, Vice Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence in 2010, Vice-Chancellor's Award for Supervision Excellence in 2013, Women in Research Fellowship in 2020, College Excellence Award for Research Supervision in 2025, College Leadership Award in 2025, Newcastle Tourism Industry Group Employee of the Year Award in 2024, University of Newcastle Employability Excellence Award in 2024, College Excellence Award for Work Integrated Learning in 2023, College Excellence Award for Industry Engagement in 2021, CAUTHE Fellows Commendation for Contribution to Tourism Education and Research in 2017, and Office for Learning and Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2015.

Young's research in critical tourism studies examines interactions between travelling and travelled cultures for sustainable tourism futures, utilizing qualitative approaches to center lived experiences of individuals and communities. Tourism, she notes, offers transformative educational opportunities through intercultural encounters for travelers, while demanding responsible, inclusive practices attuned to community values for host societies amid growing awareness of tourism's impacts. Her fields of research are tourism not elsewhere classified (50%), impacts of tourism (25%), and tourist behaviour and visitor experience (25%), with specializations in cultural tourism, event management, heritage tourism, Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, tourism management, tourism marketing, tourism studies, traveller identities, and youth travel. Notable publications include the book Tourist Cultures: Identity, Place and the Traveller (2010, co-authored with S.L. Wearing and D. Stevenson); 'A diverse economies approach for promoting peace and justice in volunteer tourism' (2022, with P. Everingham, S.L. Wearing, and K. Lyons); 'Community meaning making for tourism sustainability on Madura Island, Indonesia' (2022); 'Embodying liminality: exploring the 'affects' of sexual encounters in backpacker and volunteer tourism' (2021, with P. Everingham and A. Matthews); 'Indigenization of curricula: trends and issues in tourism education' (2017, with A.M. Maguire); and 'Welcome to Aboriginal Land: The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park' (2012). Her scholarship advances evidence-based policies, amplifying marginalized voices in volunteer tourism, Indigenous contexts, and sustainable development.