Xiang (Robert) Li

Name: Xiang (Robert) Li

Nationality: USA

Position: Specially-Appointed Expert

Introduction: Dr. Xiang (Robert) Li is a professor and Washburn Senior Research Fellow of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Temple University. He is also Director of Temple’s U.S.-Asia Center for Tourism and Hospitality Research. Robert’s research mainly focuses on destination marketing and tourist behavior. He has authored nearly 180 scientific publications, including forty-four (44) papers on top-tier tourism, business, leisure, and hospitality journals. Robert serves on the editorial boards of over ten journals and book series, and has edited a number of special issues/columns for prestigious journals such as Journal of Business Research and Journal of Travel Research.  Robert has been consistently listed among the world’s top 40 contributors to tourism journals/most cited tourism scholars (Li & Xu, 2014; McKercher, 2014; 2015), and the top five contributors to China-related tourism and hospitality research in leading journals (Bai, 2017; Bao et al. 2018).

To date, Robert has been awarded over $1.6 million research funding. He has worked with numerous prestigious organizations, government agencies, and corporations including the World Travel & Tourism Council, United State Department of Commerce/Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI), Canadian Tourism Commission, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the United States Travel Association (USTA, formerly TIA), and National Tour Association (NTA), as well as numerous destination marketing organizations and companies such as Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and Universal Studio Hollywood. He holds/held adjunct or visiting faculty appointment in universities in Australia, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. He is also a frequent speaker at numerous international and industry conferences.