Dr Juan (Annie) Yang

Dr Juan (Annie) Yang, PhD, is a Lecturer in Hospitality Management at Southern Cross Institute (SCI), Australia. She is a PhD-qualified academic specialising in tourism marketing, customer experience, consumer behaviour, service management, and experiential learning, with more than five years of teaching experience across Australian higher education institutions, including Griffith University. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses across the tourism, hospitality, business, and marketing disciplines, with expertise in curriculum design, authentic assessment, student engagement, and technology-enhanced learning. She received the Griffith University Teaching Award (2022) in recognition of her teaching excellence and contributions to student learning.

Dr Yang has an international teaching background, having taught in South Korea, China, and Australia, which has strengthened her expertise in cross-cultural education, inclusive pedagogy, and supporting diverse student communities. She has also engaged with the tourism industry through the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) Young Professionals Mentoring Program, enhancing her understanding of tourism industry development, professional networking, and workforce capability.

Dr Yang is a research-active scholar with interdisciplinary research interests spanning tourism marketing, customer experience, meaningful tourism experiences, value co-creation, consumer behaviour, wellbeing, destination choice, international student decision-making, sustainable tourism, and AI applications in tourism and marketing. Her research explores how individuals create, evaluate, and derive value from tourism and service experiences. She has published research on tourism experiences, travel decision-making, and experience co-creation, and has presented her work at the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) Conference in 2021, 2022, and 2025. She is also the recipient of the Best Social Paper Award for research examining the social and cultural impacts of tourism experiences.

Her applied research experience includes contributions to major Australian research programs through Roy Morgan, including the International Visitor Survey (IVS), the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, and Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Through her work with Murweh Shire Council, she contributed to tourism workforce research, regional tourism development, and grant development and funding processes, including proposal preparation, stakeholder engagement, and evidence-based reporting. Dr Yang is committed to producing impactful interdisciplinary research, building industry partnerships, and integrating research excellence into tourism and marketing education.

Email – [email protected]