Faith Ong

Dr Faith Ong researches events, tourism and hospitality as tools of social change. She studies how festivals, community gatherings and targeted events shape the social inclusivity of places, and what they mean for the communities involved.

Her work centres on enabling full and inclusive participation in events and travel. She has focused on sexually and culturally diverse communities and on people with disabilities, and she continues to examine the signals of inclusion and exclusion at occasions meant to bring people together. Recent publications look at the roles LGBTQ+ events play for queer people, the paradoxes of social dominance within LGBTQ+ events, the impacts of Pride cancellation, and how Australia and China approach event accessibility.

Faith is also an expert on volunteering. She examines its impacts on individuals in tourism and events, including rights-based approaches to mega-event volunteering and the legacies of the Olympic Games. She argues that volunteering strengthens the fabric of societies and helps counter growing loneliness.

Faith has published widely in journals including Tourism Management and Journal of Sustainable Tourism. She supervises research students and is available to the media on accessibility, social inclusion, LGBT events and volunteering.