Simona Azzali is a lecturer and researcher in urban design at James Cook University Singapore where she coordinates the Master of Planning and Urban Design and teaches modules on planning and sustainable urbanism. She is a member of JCU's Tropical Urbanism and Design Lab, an interdisciplinary team of geographers, architects, sociologists and planners interested in tropical urbanism, and JCU's Centre for International Trade and Business in Asia (CITBA). Prior to commencing her appointment at James Cook University, she worked and researched for various renowned academic institutions as the National University of Singapore, UCL London, Politecnico di Milano, and Qatar University, where she also undertook her Ph.D.
K Thirumaran has over 15 years of tourism related research experience. As an academic, he has combined his professional experiences to discover and expand practice-informed research. Thiru's research interests are varied, but his core specializations reside in service excellence, and cultural and luxury tourism. Thiru coined the term 'affinity tourism.' Affinity tourism refers to the propensity of guests to partake in 'familiar' and 'similar' cultural experiences to those of their hosts. He has published field studies on Bhutan, Bali, Singapore, Vietnam, India and Thailand.