Ingrid Piller has been invited to join the Board of Directors of the Japan-Australia Tourism Foundation. The foundation’s annual meeting was held at Tamagawa University, Tokyo in May 2008 and four new directors were appointed, including Ingrid. She is expected to play a key role in mediating communication among researchers and industrial partners in tourism between Australia and Japan.
This appointment results from the foundation’s recognition of her contribution to the tourism industry, particularly through her tourism project, The language factor in the Australian tourism industry, funded by a Macquarie University Research Development Grant. This project focuses on the language and communication needs and practices of older Japanese tourist to Australia and fieldwork on the project is conducted by Dr Kimie Takahashi. After an initial period of data collection on the Gold Coast in April this year, Kimie completed a second round of fieldwork with tourism service providers in Japan in July and the results will be presented at the AILA conference in Germany in August, where Ingrid is co-convening a panel on Tourism as a site of applied linguistics research the GlobE conference in Poland in September, where Kimie will be presenting a paper on The new media, desire and Japanese senior sojourners; and the JALT conference in Japan in November 2008, where Kimie will be participating in the GALE panel on Gender and Language Learning.
Advertisement of Jetstar in Tokyo, July 2008
About the Japan-Australia Tourism Foundation
Established within Tamagawa University in 2007, the Japan-Australia Tourism Foundation consists of members who are key players from academia as well as the public and private tourism sectors, including Richard Beere (Tourism Australia), Masashi Ogino (Director of Qantas, Japan), Professor Haruo Orito (Tamagawa University) and Murray McLean (Australian Ambassador in Japan). Supporting members include major organizations such as the JAL Foundation and the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation. Inquires regarding membership should be emailed to Kimie Takahashi.
