Associate Professor Jan Packer

Principal Research Fellow

School of Business
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
j.packer@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 67789

Overview

Dr Jan Packer has a background in Psychology having completed a BA (Hons) at UQ in 1976. Her PhD (Education, QUT, 2004) focussed on motivations for learning in educational leisure settings. She has published broadly in the area of educational psychology over many years. The current major focus of her research is in applying the principles of educational, environmental and positive psychology to understand and facilitate visitor experiences in leisure settings such as museums and other tourist and leisure contexts. Jan was co-editor of the international journal, Visitor Studies from 2005 through 2011.

Research Interests

  • Visitor studies; Free-choice learning; Museums; Zoos and Aquariums
    Applying the principles of educational, environmental and positive psychology to understand and facilitate visitor experiences in tourism and leisure settings such as museums, zoos and aquariums, and ecotourism experiences.

Research Impacts

Dr Packer's research informs practice in museums, zoos and aquariums, ecotourism and heritage tourism settings. Her research has contributed to developing an understanding of visitor motivations, visitor experiences, and beneficial outcomes for visitors to museums and other visitor attractions. She has a developing interest in the quality of life outcomes of tourism and leisure more broadly. Her research with Professor Ballantyne has identified factors that encourage and support visitors' adoption of environmentally sustainable behaviours as a result of visiting a zoo, aquarium or ecotourism activity.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Queensland University of Technology
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, The University of Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Ballantyne, Roy, Packer, Jan, Hughes, Karen and Broughton, Tobias (2023). Interpretation for children: turning horror and hurt into healing and hope. Children, young people and dark tourism. (pp. 101-113) edited by Mary Margaret Kerr, Philip R. Stone and Rebecca H. Price. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003032199-10

  • Packer, Jan and Gill, Chelsea (2017). Meaningful vacation experiences. Positive tourism. (pp. 19-34) edited by Sebastian Filep, Jennifer Laing and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315707129

  • Packer, Jan (2015). Science tourism. Encyclopaedia of science education. (pp. 930-932) edited by Richard Gunstone. New York, United States: Springer Reference. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-2150-0_337

  • Packer, Jan (2014). Visitors’ restorative experiences in museum and botanic garden environments. Tourist experience and fulfilment: insights from positive psychology. (pp. 202-222) edited by Sebastian Filep and Philip Pearce. Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203134580

  • Packer, Jan and Ballantyne, Roy (2013). Developing ecotourists' environmentally sustainable behaviour. International handbook on ecotourism. (pp. 192-202) edited by Roy Ballantyne and Jan Packer. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

  • Ballantyne, Roy and Packer, Jan (2013). Ecotourism: themes and issues. International handbook on ecotourism. (pp. 1-6) edited by Roy Ballantyne and Jan Packer. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9780857939975.00005

  • Packer, Jan and Ballantyne, Roy (2013). Encouraging reflective visitor experiences in ecotourism. International handbook on ecotourism. (pp. 169-177) edited by Roy Ballantyne and Jan Packer. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

  • Hughes, Karen, Ballantyne, Roy, Packer, Jan and Zhu, Xuan (2011). Environmental interpretation and visitor education: a review of Australian and Chinese literature. Sino-Australia comparative study on tourism development. (pp. 111-142) edited by Jun Gao, Noel Scott, Roy Ballantyne and Peiyi Ding. Shanghai, China: China Travel & Tourism Press.

  • Ballantyne, Roy and Packer, Jan (2009). Future directions for research in free-choice environmental learning. Free-choice learning and the environment. (pp. 157-170) edited by John H. Falk, Joe E. Heimlich and Susan Foutz. Lanham, MD, United States: AltaMira Press.

  • Packer, Jan (2001). Motivations for learning: visitors' perceptions of the educational element in leisure experiences. Designing Educational Research: Theories, Methods and Practices. (pp. 115-126) edited by Parlo Singh and Erica McWilliam. Flaxton, QLD, Australia: Post Pressed.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Note for students: Associate Professor Jan Packer is not currently available to take on new students.

Completed Supervision