Antoni Riera Font University of the Balearic Islands, Spain

Antoni Riera Font (Santa Margalida, 1969). He is professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Business Studies (1992) from the UIB and a PhD in Economics and Business Studies (1998) from the same university. His doctoral thesis, titled ‘Towards a New Discrete Choice Model on the Basis of the Travel Cost Method. Application to the Protected Natural Areas in Mallorca’, was awarded the PhD Extraordinary Prize and received the VII Catalonian Award in Economics from the Catalan Society of Economics.
His interest in defining and sharing a continuous line of research, together with other researchers, in tourism and environmental economics, as the only way to achieve funding, to train young researchers and to attain a medium to high standard of quality, has led him to create and direct the research group in ‘Economic Analysis of Tourism Impacts’ and lead various European, national and regional projects, such as the development of different research contracts with businesses and public bodies.
He is the author of several papers, most importantly the ones published in the international journals, Annals of Tourism Research, Ecological Economics, Journal of Forest Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Economics, Tourism Management, and, at a national level, Investigaciones Regionales, Revista de Economía Aplicada and Revista de Hacienda Pública Española. He is also the author of books published by the Publications Service at the UIB, and co-author of, Encyclopaedia of Tourism and other international publications.
Since his appointment as director of the CRE, he edited Conjuntura, a journal published every four months, focused on the evolution of the main macroeconomic variables of the Balearic Islands, and the Informe Econòmic i Social de les Illes Balears (Economic and social report of the Balearic Islands) published by the savings bank ‘Sa Nostra’, Caixa de Balears, since 1968. Recently, he has directed the White book on tourism in Balearic Islands: towards a new culture.
He has pushed different training programmes, such as the Master in Management: quality and environment, and the Master in tourism and environmental economics. He was also the director of the Chair UNESCO/Sa Nostra for business management and the environment, created in 1998 under the collaboration agreement between the savings bank ‘Sa Nostra’, Caixa de Balears and the UIB, and recognised by UNESCO in 2000.
Through his academic career he has made research stays at the University of San Diego, California, and he has visited various bodies and research centres around the world. He is member of several professional associations such as AERNA, the Catalan Society of Economics and the Economic Association of the Balearic Islands and member, among others, of the Social Council of Palma, the Economic Institute of Balearic Islands, and the Sustainability Board of Red Eléctrica Española.