Dr Aaron Tkaczynski

Senior Lecturer

School of Business
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
a.tkaczynski@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 67093

Overview

Dr Aaron Tkaczynski is a Senior Lecturer in both tourism and events in the School of Business in the Faculty of Business, Economics & Law. He has been employed at the University of Queensland in a research capacity since 2009. Since 2021 he has also had an extra-ordinary Associate Professor position in the Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society (TREES) department at North-West University in Potchefstroom in South Africa. Aaron's research expertise and experience stems from market segmentation modelling. He publishes within journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Annals of Tourism Research and the Journal of Travel Research. Dr Tkaczynski is also very interested in tourism seasonality, eco-certification, nature-based tourism, social marketing and small-scale festivals. Aaron is also a Christian and actively researches and volunteers for many Christian orientated events such as festivals and leadership conferences. Prior to academia, Aaron was employed in local government (Hervey Bay City Council, Redland Shire Council and the Local Government Association of Queensland).

Research Interests

  • Nature-based tourism
    Understanding the motivations and behaviour of tourists seeking to experience activities in a nature-based context.
  • Eco-certification
    Understanding tourists' understanding and willingness to pay fore eco-certified nature-based programs.
  • Christian events
    Identifying how togetherness and spiritual encouragement can be used to drive attendance to Christian retreats or Christian conferences.
  • Social marketing
    Influencing individual behaviour for common good.

Research Impacts

Dr Tkaczynski’s research in events and tourism has been of interest to the wider community. He has delivered segmentation solutions for organisations as diverse as Easterfest (Australia), the Winnipeg Fringe Festival (Canada) and Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (South Africa). This research has used both on-line and in-person surveys to identify attendee’s motivations and behaviour (e.g. satisfaction) of attendees. Aaron has debriefed research committees on how event organisers can best use the results to inform future marketing and communication plans. These results have been used by the event organisers in their future marketing strategies (e.g. targeting a regional socially-focused segment). Aaron has been interviewed by industry personnel (e.g. South African Broadcasting Corporation and Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio) relating to insight from his projects. He is also very active in the religious community. For example, he has conducted in-kind research into the market segmentation of attendees to a Queensland Baptist conference (NeoLeaders) over a four year (2013-2016) period. He is actively involved in a koala conservation research and has consulted for local organsations on ways that residents and tourists can change their behaviour to increase the likelihood of koalas surviving in the wild on Queensland.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Southern Queensland

Publications

  • McKercher, Bob and Tkaczynski, Aaron (2024). The reticent tourist in a COVID-adapted world. Tourism Management, 103 104885, 1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2024.104885

  • Truong, V. Dao, Saunders, Stephen G., Tkaczynski, Aaron and Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn (2024). Tourism and social marketing: an integrative review. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-20. doi: 10.1080/09669582.2024.2309729

  • Tkaczynski, Aaron, Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn and Foster, Megan (2023). Engaging Dog Owners through Wildlife Aversion Training. International Case Studies in Event Management. (pp. 216-227) London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003390381-27

View all Publications

Publications

Book

  • Driml, Sally, Robinson, Jacqui, Tkaczynski, Aaron and Dwyer, Larry (2010). Tourism investment in Australia: A scoping study. CRC for Sustainable Tourism. Monograph series Gold Coast, Australia: CRC For Sustainable Tourism.

Book Chapter

  • Tkaczynski, Aaron, Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn and Foster, Megan (2023). Engaging Dog Owners through Wildlife Aversion Training. International Case Studies in Event Management. (pp. 216-227) London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003390381-27

  • Cordova, Luisa Lopez, Xi, Yue, Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn, Anibaldi, Renata, Tkaczynski, Aaron, Pham, Cuong and Salamone, Vanessa (2023). Leaf collective. Social Marketing. (pp. 249-265) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003200086-21

  • Ye, Qing and Tkaczynski, Aaron (2017). Environmental-focused events: saving tourism landmarks for future generations. Advances in hospitality and leisure. (pp. 155-163) edited by Joseph S. Chen. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing. doi: 10.1108/S1745-354220170000013013

  • Tkaczynski, Aaron (2017). Segmentation using two-step cluster analysis. Segmentation in social marketing: process, methods and application. (pp. 109-125) edited by Timo Dietrich, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele and Krzysztof Kubacki. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-1835-0_8

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Grants (Administered at UQ)