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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Marian Godeke Miller Lecture: Tourism expert discusses tourism and health at IU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 10, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Donald Hawkins, a tourism expert at George Washington University School of Business, will discuss tourism and health on Feb. 17 as he delivers the Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation's annual Marian Godeke Miller Lecture.

The address, "Tourism and Health: An Essential Connection," will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union at IU Bloomington. It is free and open to the public.

Hawkins conducts policy-related research and is engaged in tourism and hospitality management education. He has extensive international consulting experience with multilateral and bilateral development assistance agencies, governments and the private sector, including investment promotion, strategic planning, policy development and human resource development.

His lecture will discuss the magnitude of tourism worldwide, taking into account the current global economic climate. In addition to citing the increasing importance of health and its vital link to the quality of the visitor experience, he will present ideas for minimizing the negative impacts of tourism. This includes improving public health conditions while optimizing tourism's overall contribution to economic development through developing health related tourism ventures, such as medical procedures, spa facilities and homeopathic treatments.

Hawkins also will discuss policy guidelines based upon internationally accepted best practices designed to enhance a destination's attractiveness, marketability and sustainability by emphasizing the essential global and local connections between tourism and health.

He currently serves as chairman of Solimar International -- an international tourism development firm with offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. He was appointed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Tourism Policy in 1994 and has been a university professor for 39 years.

In 2003, he received the first United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Ulysses Prize for individual accomplishments in the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the area of tourism policy and strategic management. He coordinated the UNWTO Tourism Policy Forum focused on using tourism as a development assistance strategy, conducted at George Washington University in 2004. He received the UNWTO Themis Foundation Science Fellow Award in 2005.

Hawkins is chairman of the management committee of the International Institute of Tourism Studies. He is the author or editor of more than 100 articles or books including Tourism in Contemporary Society, Ecotourism Planning and Management, and The Environmental Classroom. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Leisure Research, serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Management, and served as the editor-in-chief of the World Travel and Tourism Review.

The lecture series is funded by Marian and William Miller. Dr. William Miller, a prominent Lafayette physician, is on the Dean's Council at the IU School of Medicine. His wife, Marian, for whom the lecture series is named, is a School of HPER graduate who has been active in numerous civic and educational organizations throughout Indiana and nationally.

School of HPER

The School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation encompasses a broad spectrum of academic interests and professional fields. The School of HPER offers nearly 50 undergraduate and advanced degree programs through its departments of Applied Health Science, Kinesiology, and Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies. To further its health and wellness initiative, Campus Recreational Sports provides sport and fitness services for the IU community and the public.

More information can be found at www.hper.indiana.edu. For more information about the Marian Godeke Miller Lecture, please contact Diane Buzzell at 812-856-4620 or hperoa@indiana.edu.

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