S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh is a Vice-Chancellor Professorial Research Fellow and Professor of Sustainable Tourism with about 25 years academic and non-academic experiences. Before joining academia, he has worked for more than 10 years in local government and municipalities of historical and touristic destinations in Iran and has been heavily involved in destination planning and management. His research interest areas contain sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, community development, and urban sustainability. He has published more than 150 articles, books and book chapters including publications in A*/A journals.
In 2022-2025, Mostafa has been listed as the top 2% scientists in the world using Scopus Database for the "Sport, Leisure & Tourism" category. He also named as the Australia's Lead Researcher in Tourism in its 2026 in The Australian, Research Magazine.
He is an editorial board member of more than 20 reputed tourism and hospitality journals, and led several projects on measuring sustainability of tourism destinations in various countries.

Claudia brings over 15 years of experience designing and operationalising sustainable tourism systems across public and private sectors. As Project Lead of the GDS-Index at GDS-Movement, she drives global sustainability improvement programmes enabling destinations to measure, manage, and enhance sustainability performance. Her background spans government strategy, certification and assurance at the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and consultancy supporting destination transformation. Claudia specialises in translating multi-dimensional indicators into actionable insights, strengthening data-driven decision-making, and aligning stakeholders to advance credible, transparent approaches to measuring destination sustainability.

Dr. Mihee Kang serves as the Chief Assurance Officer at GSTC and also works as a trainer and destination assessor. Since earning her Ph.D. in Ecotourism from Seoul National University in 1999, she has taught and researched ecotourism and sustainable tourism at various universities. As the first person to earn a Ph.D. in ecotourism in South Korea and the recipient of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve (MAB) Young Scientists Award in 2000, she has devoted over 30 years to sustainable tourism policy and development planning. Her work includes establishing tourism standards and certification, as well as conducting sustainability assessments for various destinations in South Korea and beyond.
She has held key positions in both domestic and international organizations, including the Global Ecotourism Network, and has actively participated in numerous research and Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in countries such as Australia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Paraguay, and Sri Lanka. Dr. Kang has also published numerous articles and books, including one focused on ecotourism in Asian countries.