Dr. João Romão is a Lecturer in Tourism and Regional Economics at Hokkaido University (Japan) and a Researcher at University of Algarve (Portugal), where he obtained his PhD. in Tourism. He also holds a MsC. in Economics and Management of Science of Technology (University of Lisbon, Portugal) and he had international research experiences on environmental studies (Yale University, USA) and spatial economics (VU-Amsterdam, the Netherlands). His research interests and consultancy experience also include aspects related to innovation systems and urban planning. He is a co-chair of the Cluster on Tourism, Leisure and Recreation of the Network on European Communications and Transport Activities Research and a founding member of The Regional Science Academy.