About Mike

Mike is Professor of Sport in Society and Director of the Centre for Sport, Physical Education & Activity Research (SPEAR) at Canterbury Christ Church University.

He is interested in the implications of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in physical activity and public health, and in all areas of the relationship between sport and tourism, but particularly in the motivations and behaviours of active sports tourists and travelling sports spectators.

Mike is author (with Chris Bull) of Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy and Providers (2nd Ed., Elsevier, 2009) and Olympic Tourism (Elsevier, 2008), and Editor of Sport & Tourism: A Reader (Routledge, 2008).  He is Editor of the Journal of Sport & Tourism (Taylor & Francis), has Guest Edited issues of European Sport Management Quarterly, European Journal of Sport Science and Psychology of Sport & Exercise, and sits on the Editorial Boards of Qualitative Research in Sport & Exercise and The Qualitative Report.

Mike’s research has been funded by, inter alia, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Department of Health, the NHS, UK Sport, Sport England, the Youth Sport Trust, the Football Association, Coca-Cola Enterprises, LloydsTSB, StreetGames and 4Children, and he has advised agencies across the UK on both sports tourism and Olympic development.