Associate Professor Richard Robinson

Associate Professor

School of Business
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

Overview

Richard previously practiced as a chef, predominantly managing foodservice operations in the prestige club, heritage facility and hotel sectors, before joining UQ in 2005. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in hospitality and tourism management and professional development. His expertise and scholarship in teaching and learning are recognized by awards and advisory appointments at state, national and international level. His research projects, often funded by competitive local, national and international awarding bodies, explore tourism, hospitality and culinary workforce policy and planning especially in relation to youth and MH&W, skills development, identifying ‘foodies’ consumer behaviours and designing and evaluating education programs. He holds an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship, to develop a tourism workforce crisis resilience and recovery strategy in partnership with Queensland Tourism Industry Council.

Research Interests

  • Workforce issues in hospitality and tourism; food tourism

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Opportunities are available to undertake PhDs into Dr Robinson’s Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship This three year project is funded by the Queensland Government and is in partnership with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. It seeks to develop a Tourism Employment Crisis Recovery and Resilience Strategy to allow Queensland, Queensland businesses and Queenslanders to recover from the massive disruption of COVID-19 – and to effectively weather future shocks.

    Possible foci include

    • Employee wellbeing in crisis and recovery
    • Organisational workforce responses to crises
    • Workforce policy and planning responses to crises

    There is also an opportunity to investigate the intersection between persistent or structural tourism employment issues and crisis e.g.,

    • Contingent labour
    • Low entry barries (for workers and businesses)
    • Reliance on temporary and migrant workforces
    • Informal economies
    • Career pathways and career attractiveness
    • Labour substitution technologies

    Direct funding (e.g. a dedicated scholarship) is not available but there will be opportunities to leverage from the budget, partner commitment and industry contacts and work in a lab-type team.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Mooney, Shelagh, Robinson, Richard N.S., Solnet, David J and Baum, Tom (2023). A critical review of sustainable work and employment in tourism: an introduction. A Sustainable Tourism Workforce. (pp. 1-20) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003435457-1

  • Riordan, Tyler, Robinson, Richard N.S. and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2023). Seeking justice beyond the platform economy: migrant workers navigating precarious lives. A Sustainable Tourism Workforce. (pp. 92-109) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003435457-6

  • Robinson, Richard N.S., Martins, Antje, Solnet, David and Baum, Tom (2023). Sustaining precarity: critically examining tourism and employment. A Sustainable Tourism Workforce. (pp. 33-50) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003435457-3

  • Riordan, Tyler, Robinson, Richard and Hoffstaedter, Gerhard (2023). Contactless delivery: migrant experiences in the platform economy. Platform labour and global logistics: a research companion. (pp. 245-262) edited by Immanuel Ness. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003351764-20

  • Getz, D., Robinson, R.N.S and Vujicic, S. (2021). A foodies perspective on gastronomic tourism. The Routledge handbook of gastronomic tourism. (pp. 134-142) edited by Saurabh Kumar Dixit. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315147628-18

  • Robinson, Richard N. S. and Jiang, Yawei (2021). Events employment: crises’ impacts and resolutions. Crisis management and recovery for events: impacts and strategies. (pp. 100-117) edited by Vassilios Ziakas, Vladimir Antchak and Donald Getz. Oxford, United Kingdom: Goodfellow Publishers. doi: 10.23912/9781911635901-4816

  • Dagsland, Åse Helene Bakkevig, Robinson, Richard N. S. and Brenner, Matthew L. (2020). Gateway, Fast Lane, or Early Exit? Tourism and Hospitality as a First Employer of Norwegian Youth. Tourism Employment in Nordic Countries. (pp. 257-278) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-47813-1_13

  • Sigala, Marianna and Robinson, Richard N.S. (2019). Introduction: The evolution of wine tourism business management. Management and marketing of wine tourism business. (pp. 1-21) edited by Marianna Sigala and Richard N. S. Robinson. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-75462-8_1

  • Robinson, R. N. S. and McGregor, A. (2019). Wine Industry and Wine Tourism Industry Collaboration: A Typology and Analysis. Wine Tourism Destination Management and Marketing: Theory and Cases. (pp. 381-397) edited by Marianna Sigala and Richard N.S. Robinson. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-00437-8_25

  • Robinson, Richard N.S. and Sigala, Marianna (2018). Epilogue: An ecosystems framework for studying Wine Tourism-Actors, Co-creation Processes, experiences and outcomes. Management and Marketing of Wine Tourism Business: Theory, Practice, and Cases. (pp. 375-381) edited by Marianna Sigala and Richard N. S. Robinson. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Breakey, Noreen M., Robinson, Richard N.S. and Brenner, Matthew L. (2015). Approaches in the Design and Delivery of Hotel/Hospitality Management Undergraduate Degree Programmes within Australia. The Routledge Handbook of Tourism and Hospitality Education. (pp. 305-321) edited by Dianne Dredge, David Airey and Michael J. Gross. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203763308-37

  • Getz, Donald, Robinson, Richard and Vujicic, Sanja (2014). Demographic history of food travellers. Have Fork Will Travel: A Practical Handbook for Food & Drink Tourism Professionals. (pp. 63-69) edited by Erik Wolf, Jenn Bussell, Caralyn Campbell, Wendy Lange-Faria and Kathy McAree. Portland, OR, USA: World Food Travel Association.

  • Robinson, Richard (2013). Australia's culinary 'coming out'. Food and Drink: The Cultural Context. (pp. 220-227) edited by Donald Sloan. Oxford, UK: Goodfellow Publishers. doi: 10.23912/978-1-908999-03-0-2330

  • Robinson, Richard N. S. (2013). Souveniring occupational artefacts: the chef's uniform. Tourism and Souvenirs: Glocal Perspectives from the Margins. (pp. 49-60) edited by Jenny Cave, Lee Jolliffe and Tom Baum. Bristol, United Kingdom: Channel View Publications.

  • Boksberger, Philipp, Schuckert, Markus and Robinson, Richard (2010). Feeding time at the zoo: Food service and attraction management. Zoos and Tourism: Conservation, Education, Entertainment. (pp. 143-153) edited by Warwick Frost. Bristol, England: Channel View Publications.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Opportunities are available to undertake PhDs into Dr Robinson’s Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship This three year project is funded by the Queensland Government and is in partnership with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. It seeks to develop a Tourism Employment Crisis Recovery and Resilience Strategy to allow Queensland, Queensland businesses and Queenslanders to recover from the massive disruption of COVID-19 – and to effectively weather future shocks.

    Possible foci include

    • Employee wellbeing in crisis and recovery
    • Organisational workforce responses to crises
    • Workforce policy and planning responses to crises

    There is also an opportunity to investigate the intersection between persistent or structural tourism employment issues and crisis e.g.,

    • Contingent labour
    • Low entry barries (for workers and businesses)
    • Reliance on temporary and migrant workforces
    • Informal economies
    • Career pathways and career attractiveness
    • Labour substitution technologies

    Direct funding (e.g. a dedicated scholarship) is not available but there will be opportunities to leverage from the budget, partner commitment and industry contacts and work in a lab-type team.