M.S.M. Aslam is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Tourism Management at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. He completed MSc in Management at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura in Sri Lanka and received his PhD in tourism from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Dr Aslam has served as consultant for national, provincial, local and community level tourism planning and development in Sri Lanka, and worked on the ministry advisory board on community-based tourism development in Sri Lanka. His research and publications have covered inbound travel agencies in Sri Lanka, sustainable tourism development in the world heritage city of Kandy, and challenges and issues in developing sustainable rural tourism in Sri Lanka. Nor'Ain Othman is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia.

Dr Othman formerly worked as Assistant Director of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board before joining UiTM in 1993, and is the founder of the Tourism Outlook Conference series. Her research focuses on tourism management, tourism marketing, event management, heritage tourism, and Islamic tourism, and she is currently the vanguard researcher for UiTM in its Center of Research Excellence, Humanity and Quality of Life. Alan A. Lew is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Recreation at Northern Arizona University, where he teaches courses in geography, urban planning and tourism. Dr Lew is the founding editor-in-chief of the Tourism Geographies journal, and has published over 25 books on geography and tourism, including the third edition of Tourism Geography (Routledge). He is a Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and his research interests and writings focus on community tourism development across East and Southeast Asia. Malcolm Cooper is Emeritus Professor and teaches tourism management and environmental law at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), Japan. Dr Cooper also serves as a Visiting Professor at Saburagamuwa University, Sri Lanka.

His parallel career has been in the city planning and tourism policy areas for federal, state and local governments in Australia and New Zealand, and he has served as a private planning consultant and a tourism education consultant to the governments of Dubai, Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam. He is a recipient of the Australian Centennial Medal and has published over 100 books and papers.