MAGIO, KENNEDY OBOMBO

I have loved reading about people, politics and the environment since I was an undergraduate student. Participating in environmental events at school and administering my professors’ research questionnaires instilled in me a burning desire to be a researcher in sustainability related topics. This goal was my motivation to pursue graduate studies, which exposed me to an active, diverse and competitive research environment with excellent opportunities to understand methodologies and research approaches of other scientific disciplines. Over the last six years, I have done research and published widely in the areas of conservation and sustainable development. Specifically, I focus on tourism and the environment, environmental impact assessment, local development, tourism policy and governance, and destination management. To date, I have over 20 publications in international journals, government reports, books, book chapters, and monographs. I recently attained a Level 1 Rating from the National Network of Researchers in México (SNI 1) after an evaluation carried out by the National Council of Science and Technology.

In my research work, which has mainly focused on Latin America and East Africa, I bridge theory and practice to shed new light on the sustainability dilemma, contributing fresh multi-stakeholder governance approaches and perspectives of conciliating tourism development, natural resource management and the aims of socioeconomic development. I also receive many invitations to give keynote addresses at international tourism conferences and workshops worldwide. I was invited as a speaker and panelist to the special symposium “Ecotourism: A Partnership with Nature?” held on 18-19 January, 2015 by the Canisius Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations (Buffalo, New York, USA) and the Tourism Department at Brock University. I have been awarded several scholarships and research grants to contribute to tourism knowledge, including my currently held research grant from the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology and the Technological Institute of Cancun (ITC) to carry out research on tourism sustainability in the Mexican Caribbean. Additionally, I have received:

● A doctoral scholarship and research assistantship by CONACYT, Mexico’s science and technology administration (2012-2015)
● A National Research Excellence Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation by the Mexican Academy for Tourism Research (Academia Mexicana de Investigación Turística A.C. – AMIT) in 2015
● The International Institute of Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Scholarship Award for the Best Paper received during the World Tourism Symposium 2015, organized by IIPT and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

I maintain strong connections with the tourism industry at international, national, state and local levels. I have undertaken a number of consulting projects for public and private sector tourism organizations both within Mexico, including for the Ministry of Tourism (Secretaría de Turismo), and for international agencies, including the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) in Washington D.C. I currently serve as CREST’s research affiliate for Latin America. In 2015, I founded the Center for Advanced Technology in Sustainability, which has a special focus on tourism research. The center, based in Queretaro, was financed by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). The same year, I conducted research on tourism competitiveness and sustainability in Sinaloa, Mexico. The project was jointly financed by CREST and the Ministry of Tourism in Mexico (SECTUR). In 2013, I was the lead researcher in another study of tourism competitiveness and sustainability in two Mexican destinations: Mazatlán and Cosala, the latter of which was designated a ‘magical village’ by SECTUR. The project was carried out through the Department of Graduate Studies at the University of Occidente and formed part of a larger project commissioned by President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. A total of 44 beach destinations were included in the main study, and I have published two books and two journal articles from the results. Between 2011 and 2012, I conducted research on local residents’ attitudes and perceptions toward the development of slum tourism in one of Africa’s largest slums, Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. This was part of my master’s dissertation from which I published a book.