Dr. Salvador Antón Salvador Antón Clavé is a Full Professor of Regional Geographical Analysis at the Rovira i Virgili University, Catalonia (Spain) where he currently serves as Director of the Doctoral Program in Tourism and Leisure. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Research Group of Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies and the Director of Research at the Science and Technology Park for Tourism and Leisure of Catalonia. He has been director/dean of the School of Tourism and Leisure/Faculty of Tourism and Geography at the Rovira i Virgili University since its foundation in 2002 until 2014 and Visiting Research Scholar at the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University in 2015-2106.
His research concentrates on the analysis of the evolution of tourism destinations, theme parks and visitor attractions, destination image, policies, planning and local and regional development related to tourism and visitors decision making and spatial behavior. He has published in academic journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, European Urban and Regional Studies or Tourism Geographies and among his most relevant major publications are his books entitled The Global Theme Park Industry (CABI, 2007) Análisis Territorial del Turismo y Planificación de Destinos Turísticos (Tirant lo Blanch, 2011, co-authored with JF. Vera, F. López and M. Marchena), Geographies of Tourism: European Research Perspectives (Emerald, 2013, co-edited with J. Wilson) and Tourism Destination Evolution (Routledge, 2016, co-edited with P. Brouder, A. Gill and D. Ioannides). He has extensive experience in coordinating funded research projects and holds participation in EU research and educational programs as well as in knowledge transfer projects supported by the European Regional Funds and by a number of local and regional administrations and private organizations.