Dr. Buning is a Senior Lecturer in the Tourism discipline at the UQ Business School and Research Lead of the UQ Micromobility Research Cluster. He is recognised as one of Australia’s leading voices on micromobility, e-mobility and global scholar for cycling tourism. His research focuses on active living, tourism systems, and destination development, with a particular attention to both residents and visitors.His research agenda examines how tourists and residents engage in physical activity both as a driver of tourism behaviour and community health (e.g., active lifestyle sports, sports club participation) and as a feature of destination mobility systems (e.g., active transport).
His work on active transport investigates how bikeshare, e-scooters, and micromobility more generally enable healthier, more active, and more sustainable communities for residents and visitors. This work directly informs public policy and industry strategy. His research on active lifestyle sports contributes to scholarship in active sport tourism, including mountain biking, cycling, running, rock climbing, and hiking. Research outcomes have contributed to improved economic performance, increased visitor dispersal, reduced congestion pressures, enhanced public health outcomes, and strengthened community wellbeing in destination contexts through sustainable transport and active tourism strategies.
Dr. Buning has worked extensively with active transport providers, sporting organisations, and state and local governments across Australia and the United States. He regularly consults on data-driven strategy development for active mobility systems, events, and community-based tourism initiatives. His work regularly appears in leading tourism, sport, and transport journals and popular press outlets around micromobility, active transport, sport tourism, and event management.
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Sara and her research group, the Low Harm Hedonism Initiative, develop theories of environmentally significant human behaviour and leverage them to design practical measures that trigger pro-environmental behaviour without undermining consumer satisfaction. These new behavoiur change interventions are then tested in real-world contexts, so their effectiveness on actual behaviour change with environmental consequences can be established. Sara’s research is driven by scholarly curiosity and the desire to create meaningful change. Sara is a dedicated supervisor and mentor of early career researchers.
Dr Jan Packer has a background in Psychology having completed a BA (Hons) at UQ in 1976. Her PhD (Education, QUT, 2004) focussed on motivations for learning in educational leisure settings. She has published broadly in the area of educational psychology over many years. The current major focus of her research is in applying the principles of educational, environmental and positive psychology to understand and facilitate visitor experiences in leisure settings such as museums and other tourist and leisure contexts. Jan was co-editor of the international journal, Visitor Studies from 2005 through 2011.
