Alf Kuilboer

Qualifications

• Graduate Certificate of Education (Tertiary Teaching), JCU, 2013-2018
• Doctor of Philosophy – Tourism, JCU, 2005-2011
• Bachelor of Administration (Tourism) Honours Class 1, JCU, 2003-2004
• Bachelor of Business – Bachelor of Administration (Tourism), JCU, 1999 - 2002

Biography

I grew up in Hamilton, Victoria, and at the age of 17 joined the Army for 9 years based in Townsville, North Queensland. In 1990 employed as Registrar of Rhema Bible College a registered training institution in Townsville. This position also involved teaching. In 1994 this position expanded to Registrar of Rhema College of Christian Ministries incorporating both internal and external oversight. I performed this role for 9 years. In 1999 I enrolled at James Cook University and completed a double degree in Business and Tourism. Prior to commencing full-time studies, I established my own small business which I successfully operated during my undergrad studies. An additional 12 months saw the successful attainment of a Tourism Honours Class 1 achievement. After a further year of casual lecturing, I commenced my PhD in Tourism during which time I was offered a full-time lecturing position. In 2010, I completed my PhD on ‘Analysing service quality for senior travellers: a mixed research approach investigating the perceptions of satisfaction in this growing tourism market’.

From 2012 I have been the First Year Experience Cordinator for the College of Business at James Cook University. I have a passion to ensure that first year students’ transition into tertiary studies is an appropriate and positive experience for students from all diverse backgrounds.

My earlier research interest focused on the Senior Traveller market and the benefits of travel/tourism to the health and well-being of senior travellers. As the population of Australian senior travellers is increasing, my research moved into investigating service quality in the tourism industry in this growing market segment. Over the past 7 years, my research has concentrated on Work Integrated Learning and the strategic embedding of employability skills, (informed by industry) within the Bachelor Business degree. This work has been recognised in a 2017 JCU Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Ongoing research in this area has continued and currently collaborating with ECU working on a second publication.