Laurie Murphy
- laurie.murphy@jcu.edu.au
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- Management
Biography
Laurie Murphy grew up in London Ontario Canada and completed a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Waterloo in Recreation and Leisure Studies. She then spent two years at North Carolina State University completing and Master’s Degree in Recreation and Leisure and as a research assistant on a major project for the North Carolina State Division of Travel and Tourism where more than 12,000 visitors to the state were surveyed.
While backpacking in Australia Laurie was offered a lecturing position at JCU which she took up in 1991 and she completed her PhD at JCU on Backpackers and their travel decisions in 1997.
Research
Research Interests
Tourism and its contribution to regional communities is at the core of another ongoing research program focusing on Tourist Shopping Villages. This research examines tourist shopping villages in order to understand how their performance can be enhanced for multiple stakeholders in the community and considers the tourist experiences. The shopping villages research highlighted the important linkages between tourism and other regional industries. This has evolved into the more recent research examining the links between tourism and community well-being in more detail in order to identify the ways in which tourism can best make a positive contribution to tropical communities.
Understanding and improving tourism’s contribution to regional Australia: Her early work on backpackers focused on understanding their travel decision making processes.
Work in the field of destination branding has focused on its application to regional destinations and whether traditional brand personality concepts translate from consumer goods to tourism destinations.
Projects
Teaching
Teaching Interests
Laurie is the Work Integrated Learning Co-ordinator for the School of Business and is responsible for establishing industry partnerships to facilitate professional internship and industry project opportunities for students.
Research Advisor Accreditation
Advisor Type
Mentor
Research Advisor Accreditation
Role
Chair; Independent Academic