About – Associate Professor Mingming Cheng

Welcome to my personal website. I am currently an Associate Professor in digital marketing and Director of the Social Media Research Lab at the School of Management and Marketing, Curtin University, Australia. I was a lecturer (assistant professor) in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, New Zealand. I earned my Ph.D. in tourism marketing from UTS Business School at the University of Technology Sydney.

I am passionate about research. My research examines the digital transformation of the tourism industry – new experiences (e.g., Airbnb), new marketing channels (e.g., social media), new technology-savvy markets (e.g., Chinese post-80s tourist market) and the environmental impacts of tourism including carbon footprint.

I have a particular interest in data science (big data) and social media analytics

I am an award-winning researcher and educator with over thirty international, national and university prestigous awards, notably:

~2022 CETT Alimara Barcelona Award by B-Travel Tourism Fair, Barcelona Trade Fair Institute and University of Barcelona Center for Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy. This award recognises the outstanding contribution of applied research to address the global challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry.

~Australia’s Top 40 Early Career Researchers – Rising Stars of Research and Leaders of the Future across all disciplines by the Australian Magazine (The Five Best-Performing Early Career Researchers in Business, Economics and Management)

~International Academy of the Study of Tourism Emerging Scholar of Distinction Award for the significant contribution to ground breaking and innovative research in tourism – the highest recognition for an early career researcher in tourism globally (within 10 years of completing a PhD)

~CAUTHE Fellows Award recognising an academic from Australia or New Zealand who is seen to have made the greatest contribution to Australasian tourism, hospitality and/or event research.

~ABC Top 5 (Humanities) 2022 – Australia’s best and brightest young minds (The TOP 5 Humanities is a two-week media residency, which aims to discover Australia’s next generation of dynamic thinkers and give them a voice).

Google my citations

I am committed to innovative research and teaching practices that create positive impacts on those involved. In 2021, I won Curtin University Best New Media Talent Award for a significant contribution to raising the profile of Curtin through the media. a Finalist, Young Australian China Alumni of the Year 2021, recognizing young Australia China alumni’s outstanding talent, achievements, and contributions they have made to the wider Australia-China community. It also celebrates the alumni’s integrity, initiative and innovation and fast trajectory to leadership in their field.

I was the only early career researcher listed in Stanford University’s 2021 list of the top 2% scientists in the world across 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields – Sport, Leisure & Tourism Category –73th in the world (excluding self-citations)) and World Top 50 Most Productive Scholar in tourism and hospitality based on the outputs between 2015 and 2019 (Wong et al, 2021,  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (ABDC: A, IF=5.6)

I am also on the editorial board of the following journals:

I am also on the external grant review panel for Poland National Science Center (equivalent to Australia Research Council).

I am also a regular contributor to the mainstream media including ABC News, Sydney Morning Herald, Perth News, SBS News (Mandarin), The Conversation, NZ Stuff News, NZ Radio and South China Morning Post on my research areas

Thus far, I have attracted more than AU$ 650,000 research funding

Potential PhD applicants (中文版本)

I am actively seeking PhD students who are genuinely passionate about research in marketing and tourism. To determine your suitability, in your email, please send the following documents:

1: Most updated CV detailing your research experience

2: Academic Transcripts

3: Publications (If any)

In your email, please also indicate 

1: Your proposed research topic 

2: Whether previous degrees (bachelor and/or master) have at least a 25% research component (e.g. thesis or dissertation)