Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu is the Dean and the McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF), who also serves as the Director of the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation and Coordinator of International Programs for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He is a renowned hospitality and tourism technology expert. Dr. Cobanoglu is a Fulbright Specialist commissioned by the Fulbright Commission (2018-2021). He is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) commissioned by Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Educational Institute of American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). He is the Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (JHTT)(Indexed in SSCI IF=4.2) and a co-author of 10+ books and 20+ conference proceedings.

Dr. Erkol Bayram is currently an Associate Professor and vice-dean in tourism faculty, department of tour guiding, University of Sinop, Sinop, Turkey. Dr. Erkol Bayram has worked as an internal trainer and teacher in the tour guiding arena. Her doctorate is in Tourism Management from the Sakarya University, Turkey, and she completed her dissertation research on Tour Guiding in Turkey. Her core subjects are Tourism, tour guiding, tourism policy and Planning, women studies. Erkol Bayram has also worked as a professional tour guide in the tourism sector. She has many book chapters in the international arena and published her books as an editor and author in the national arena. She has been invited for many talks/lectures/ panel discussions by different Universities and countries. She has a member of eminent journals in advisory board editor and she published articles in tourism and Management areas.

Erdogan Ekiz joined TEAM University in Tashkent Uzbekistan as Full-Professor of Marketing and Dean of Faculty. He was previously Associate Professor at Westminster International University in Tashkent, and Ad-Hoc Professor at The Ostelea in Morocco. Before this Dr. Erdogan was the Founding Dean of the School of Hospitality Business and Management at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. He was an Associate Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Tourism, Saudi Arabia, where he served as Director of both the Postgraduate Studies and International Relations and Agreements Unit. He also served as the launching Head of the Travel and Tourism Department. He worked as a Director of Studies at the London School of Commerce, and Associate Professor at the University of Derby, University of Worcester, and University of Northampton’s common degree program (held in Saudi Arabia) on an ad hoc basis. Dr. Ekiz is a certified trainer, recognized by the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) of Saudi Arabia, worked with MEHRAT and BETA training centers on an AdHoc basis.
Dr. Ekiz completed his Ph.D. in tourism and hospitality management at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has a B.Sc. in tourism and hotel management and an M.B.A. in services marketing from Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus. He is a ‘Certified Hospitality Educator’ (CHE) from the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute and ‘Qualified Learning Facilitator’ (QLF) from École hôtelière de Lausanne. He is an ‘Advanced Trainer’ with Distinction of International Air Transport Association (IATA). He has over 20 years of teaching experience in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cyprus, Turkey, Malaysia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. He is the Middle East Representative of the Association of North America Higher Education International.
Dr. Ekiz is acting as the Asia-Pacific Coordinating Editor of the Journal of Travel and Tourism as well as the Middle-East Coordinator of the Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Tourism. His expertise includes service failure, consumer complaining behavior, tourist behavior, and culture. He has around 200 published journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. His papers have appeared in respected refereed journals such as the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, Tourism Analysis, etc. He is an editorial board member of top-tier journals, such as the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, the Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Tourism Analysis, and several more.
He has successfully completed several consultancy projects with major companies in the industry and is still working on a dozen grants and consultation projects for both government and private sectors. Dr. Ekiz has a wide range of hands-on management experience within the sector, from fast food to 5-star hotels.

He was born in 1959 in Trabzon Of. He completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Trabzon. He entered (today's Gazi-AHBVU) AITIA-MBMYO - Department of Business Administration and Accounting in 1977 and completed it in 1981 and completed his military service between 1982-1983. He worked in the private sector in Ankara between 1983-1984. He was appointed to Istanbul Technical University Sakarya Vocational School as an administrative officer in November 1984. He started his master's degree in Istanbul University SBE Tourism Department in 1987 and completed it in 1989. He started his doctorate in Tourism at the same institute in 1990 and completed it in 1994. He was appointed as a lecturer in ITU- Sakarya Vocational School Tourism Management Department in 1989. He was appointed to Sakarya University Sakarya Vocational School Tourism Program, which was established in 1992, as an Assist. He continued his duty as Assoc. In 1988, he was appointed as Assistant Professor to Sapanca Vocational School of the same university. In 2000, he was appointed as Assistant Professor to Sakarya University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Tourism Management, and in 2012, he was appointed as Assistant Professor to the Faculty of Business Administration. In 2014, he received the title of ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR as a result of the Interuniversity Board exams and was then appointed as Associate Professor at the same faculty. In 2016, he was appointed as ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR to SAU- Faculty of Tourism, which was established with the division of Sakarya University. In 2018, he was appointed to the Tourism Guidance Department of the newly established Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Tourism. In 2020, he was appointed as PROFESSOR to the Tourism Guidance Department of the same faculty. He is married with three children. Burhanettin Zengin, who has served as Department and Program Head, Director, Assistant Director, Department Head, Board Member in his nearly 40 years of education and teaching life, has been serving as the Director of Sapanca Vocational School since 2021, and has taken part in approximately 12 projects and supervised 55 postgraduate theses, 21 of which are doctoral and 32 of which are master's. During this period, he has more than 350 scientific works, including those presented and published in SSCI, ESCI, international field indexed, nationally refereed journals, congresses and conferences, and also national and international book and chapter authorships. His areas of expertise include Tourism and Travel Management, Guidance, Tourism Marketing, Tourism Accounting and Finance.