Anna Leask
Anna Leask

Prof Anna Leask

Professor

Biography

Anna Leask is Professor of Tourism Management and a key member of the Tourism and Languages Subject Group in The Business School. I am involved in a broad range of activities - researching, teaching, supervising, engaging with industry, knowledge exchange and informing policy and business practice. My role provides extensive opportunities to engage with students, organisations, businesses and communities. As a result, I am regularly invited to contribute to tourism strategy and policy-making events, informing policy on the basis of my research.

I am an internationally recognised expert in international visitor attraction, museum and heritage management, with a particular interest in how to engage a broader range of visitor audiences. I also research destination management, specifically World Heritage site designation and management practice. I'm also part of an international network of researchers into the development of dementia-friendly destinations and experiences. I particularly enjoy collaborative projects that draw academics, practitioners and policymakers together to work on live issues. A recent project related to the recruitment and retention of visitor-facing employees at visitor attractions across Scotland - a multi-generational approach.

I am Lead for the interdisciplinary Tourism Research Centre hosted at Edinburgh Napier University. I encourage collaborative working and work closely with the tourism, festival and event, and hospitality sectors to develop and support sustainable tourism practices. We aim to engage in inter-disciplinary research and knowledge exchange activities to drive economic, social and cultural recovery and sustainable growth across destinations and communities.

I have co-edited several textbooks including Managing Visitor Attractions (2022) and contributed to several key tourism textbooks. I am on the Editorial Board for five international tourism journals and has been actively involved in the Scientific Committees for many international conferences in Europe and USA. I have published in key 4* CABS academic journals such as Tourism Management and the Journal of Travel Research, in addition to publishing an extensive range of case studies, articles and practitioner papers. I am actively involved in doctoral student supervision and external examination.

My recent undergraduate and postgraduate teaching delivery has been in Edinburgh, Switzerland, Corsica and Hong Kong. I am also closely involved in the preparation and delivery of the Scottish Enterprise Destination Leaders’ Programme and other commercial programmes. Recent publications include work on the development of dementia-friendly destinations and how to develop experiences for Senior Visitors at attractions, with my research being embedded within the curriculum.

I have held various external roles, for example, as Visiting Professor at Wakayama University, Japan between 2015-2019, and as reviewer and referee for validation panels and promotion panels. Anna is a Fellow of the Tourism Society and of the Higher Education Academy.

I work closely with tourism sector organisations and participated in the Scottish Government Tourism Recovery Taskforce and delivery of the subsequent Scottish Government funded Talent Development and Leadership programmes. I facilitates connections between the industry and higher education in my role as Higher Education representative on the Tourism & Hospitality Skills Group as part of Skills Development Scotland. More recently I have been working with the tourism sector on how to develop skills and leadership in individuals, organisations and destinations.

Date


102 results

Rich picture building: A visual method for future serious leisure studies

Journal Article
Wyatt, B., Leask, A., & Barron, P. (online)
Rich picture building: A visual method for future serious leisure studies. World Leisure Journal, https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2025.2463469
Visual research methods have been gaining attention among leisure studies scholars in recent years. As a form of freehand drawing, this paper mobilises rich picture building (...

Engaging secondary stakeholders with Edinburgh’s festivals and tourism sectors: Staycations, localisation, community, and placemaking.

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Todd, L., & Leask, A. (2024, August)
Engaging secondary stakeholders with Edinburgh’s festivals and tourism sectors: Staycations, localisation, community, and placemaking. Presented at 35th International Geographical Congress 2024, Dublin, Ireland
Our research considers how Edinburgh’s festivals and tourism sectors can advance through sustainable community engagement, such as facilitating staycations, by responding to c...

The sustainable festival city and local communities: Engaging secondary stakeholders through placemaking

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Todd, L., & Leask, A. (2024, June)
The sustainable festival city and local communities: Engaging secondary stakeholders through placemaking. Paper presented at ATLAS Annual Conference 2024 Leisure & Tourism 2030: Navigating the Future, Breda, Netherlands
We will present initial findings from our research which considers how Edinburgh’s (UK) festivals and tourism sectors can deliver sustainable community engagement. Our study a...

Evaluation Report and Future Process for Evaluating the MTB Project

Report
Campbell, T., Minnaert, L., & Leask, A. Evaluation Report and Future Process for Evaluating the MTB Project. South of Scotland Enterprise

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Campbell, T., Minnaert, L., & Leask, A. Evaluation Report and Future Process for Evaluating the MTB Project. South of Scotland Enterprise

Re-enactment in Lighter Dark Tourism: An Exploration of Re-enactor Tour Guides and Their Perspectives on Creating Visitor Experiences

Journal Article
Wyatt, B., Leask, A., & Barron, P. (2024)
Re-enactment in Lighter Dark Tourism: An Exploration of Re-enactor Tour Guides and Their Perspectives on Creating Visitor Experiences. Journal of Travel Research, 63(2), 496-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875221151074
This study explores the perspectives of re-enactor tour guides (RTG) concerning their role and re-enactment of dark histories—an overlooked topic within dark tourism research....

Goal Congruence in Place Branding

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Leask, A., & Dinnie, K. (2022, October)
Goal Congruence in Place Branding. Paper presented at International Place Branding Association Conference, Aix-en-Provence, France

Managing Visitor Attractions

Book
Fyall, A., Garrod, B., Leask, A., & Wanhill, S. (Eds.)
(2022). Managing Visitor Attractions. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041948
Visitor attractions represent a complex sector of the tourism industry and are the catalytic focus for the development of tourism infrastructure and services. The third editio...

The Nature and Role of Visitor Attraction

Book Chapter
Leask, A. (2022)
The Nature and Role of Visitor Attraction. In A. Fyall, B. Garrod, A. Leask, & S. Wanhill (Eds.), Managing Visitor Attractions. (3rd). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041948-2
Visitor attractions play a vital role in the development and success of tourism destination. The aim of this chapter is first to define the terms ‘visitor attraction’ and ‘tou...

Interpretation at heritage sites: Culloden Battlefield, UK

Book Chapter
Urquhart, E. (2022)
Interpretation at heritage sites: Culloden Battlefield, UK. In A. Fyall, B. Garrod, A. Leask, & S. Wanhill (Eds.), Managing Visitor Attractions. (3rd edn). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041948-28
This chapter presents a case study that explores heritage interpretation within the context of Culloden Battlefield, UK. The case will initially consider the challenges and is...

Engaging local residents as stakeholders in World Heritage Sites

Presentation / Conference
Leask, A. (2022, March)
Engaging local residents as stakeholders in World Heritage Sites. Paper presented at New Lanark: A living legacy Anniversary Conference, New Lanark, UK
This paper explores how local residents engage in the management of World Heritage Sites, with specific examples from New Lanark and Edinburgh Old and New Towns World Heritag...

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