Prof Elizabeth du Preez of the Tourism Management Division in the Department of Marketing Management was honoured at the University of Pretoria’s Virtual Academic Achiever Awards, held on 25 November 2020, for her National Research Foundation (NRF) rating. The purpose of this event was to congratulate academics on exceptional academic achievement in 2019. Prof Du Preez’s Y-rating confirms that she is a young researcher with performance and productivity, producing quality research outputs during her doctoral studies and early postdoctoral career.

 

The focus of her research is on destination marketing and sport tourism, with specific interest in consumer behaviour. Her research has contributed to building a body of knowledge on environmentally responsible behaviour among sport tourists and cross-cultural research on the South African emerging domestic market. She has published in leading international tourism journals, such as Current Issues, Journal of Sport Tourism, Anatolia, Development Southern Africa, and Tourism Review International. She is a member of various local industry and academic associations. She has also been part of several funded research projects, involving research partners such as the National Department of Tourism, the ATKV, South African National Parks, the Sport and Tourism Sector Training Authority, Sport and Recreation South Africa, Red Bull South Africa and Interkultur (owner of the World Choir Games).

 

Prof Du Preez was awarded funding from the University of Pretoria’s Research and Development Programme to continue with research related to her doctoral study. She was also awarded the Faculty of EMS’s Cross-disciplinary Research Funding for 2020. The project will be a collaboration between UP and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

 

Below is screen shot taken during the live virtual event. (Since the award, Dr Du Preez has been promoted to Associate Professor)