Global tourism expert to visit Sri Lanka

Dr. Jerome Agrusa Professor and Program Chair of Travel Industry Management in the College of Business Administration at the Hawai’i Pacific University (HPU) has expressed his willingness to visit Sri Lanka in the near future.

The invitation was extended by Padmasena Dissanayake of Scholarships for USA (Pvt) Ltd. (www.scholarshipsforusa.com) HPU’s representative in Sri Lanka when he visited Honolulu recently. SUSA since ’01, having initiated 10 institutional collaborations (between US partners and Lankan institutes of higher education), is committed to bring the two nations ever so closer in the field of education.

Prof. Agrusa received his Doctorate in Tourism Sciences from Texas A&M University and is the USA representative and on the Board of Directors for the Asia Pacific Tourism Association (APTA) as well as the past President of Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) – Hawai’i Chapter.

Agrusa is well regarded for his expertise in research and teaching in the area of hospitality and tourism management. He was awarded the title of ‘Tourism Expert’ for the Asia Productivity Organization (APO), an intergovernmental international organisation whose mission is to contribute to the socioeconomic development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through this organisation Agrusa has been consulted by a number of government, university and industry tourism leaders from Taiwan, China, Korea, Mongolia and numerous other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Agrusa has published over 100 research articles and conference papers and presented his research in more than 25 different countries. His work has been cited in numerous newspapers and magazines including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes.

Dr. Agrusa has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant. Considered as the most prestigious fellowship in international higher education, recipients are required to follow a rigorous national competition. Dr. Agrusa plans to use this grant to visit Sri Lanka despite many overtures from India. He travels to Abu Dhabi two to three times a year as an invitee of Abu Dhabi Tourism Association training its senior staff.