Irena Ateljevic

personal information

Biography

Researcher
Building 358
de Hucht
Generaal Foulkesweg 13
6703 BJ WAGENINGEN
THE NETHERLANDS

Phone: + 31 317 4 84734
Email: Irena.Ateljevic@wur.nl

 

I originally come from Croatia and have lived in New Zealand since 1993. I grew up in a tourist resort on the Mediterranean (Adriatic) coast, which can explain my great passion and continuous interest in tourism that has led to my career in this field. I completed my MSc in Economics and Marketing Major at the University of Zagreb in Croatia in 1992 . My Thesis focused on tourism imaging in a tourist resorts in the former Yugoslavia.

 

In 1993 I moved to New Zealand to do my PhD study in Geography, which I completed in 1998. My Doctorate focused on the history of tourism development in Rotorua and how one town was founded, developed and has been sustained by the tourism industry.

 

I joined the School of Business and Public Management at Victoria University in Wellington in 1998. I taught there for five years and held the position of the Director of Tourism Programme for a year. I took up the present position as a Senior Lecturer in Tourism at Auckland University of Technology in late 2002.

 

My general research interests include issues of backpacker travel; tourism entrepreneurship and small business culture; discourse analysis of tourist experiences and tourism representations as constructed and interpreted in the context of various social conditions (gender, class, ethnicity, etc.). With respect to methodological skills my primary expertise lies in the application of qualitative techniques to tourism research.

 

I am presently involved in various research projects in P.R. China, Croatia and the South Pacific. I am also the Coordinator of ATLAS International Backpacker Research Group (ATLAS is an international Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and has currently more than 270 members around the world).

 

Qualifications

 

PhD Department of Geography, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Thesis: Circuits of Tourism: (Re)Producing Place of Rotorua, New Zealand MSc in Economics Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, Croatia Special Fields: Marketing; Promotional Activities in Tourism Thesis: The role of tourism promotion in directing and increasing tourist consumption: Case study of Opatija, Yugoslavia BSc in Economics Faculty of Hotel Management in Opatija, University of Rijeka, Croatia Special Field: Hospitality Industry and Hotel Management

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