Ahmet Vatan

Ahmet Vatan (PhD) is currently a visiting professor at Hotelschool The Hague in The Netherlands and a member of the Research Center as a researcher. He completed his bachelor (2008), master's (2010), and PhD (2015) in tourism management.

Ahmet’s current research focuses are sustainable tourism and robots in tourism. He authored and co-authored research papers, conference papers and book chapters in the tourism field. He was the editor of three books titled Being Woman in Tourism, Tourism and Art, Tourism and Religion. Ahmet has been an editorial board member of scientific journals. He works as an academic and also writes feature films and scripts for series.

“The basis of my research in recent years is my master's thesis on the use of innovation in hotels. In my subsequent education and academic journey, hospitality technology has always been one of my interests. I have always aimed to improve myself in different subjects by making use of the multi-discipline of the tourism field. Being women in tourism, the relationship between tourism and art, the relationship between tourism and religions, the destination marketing (subject of my Phd thesis) are other areas which I did research. Nowadays I prefer to limit my main research areas to sustainable tourism and robots in tourism.

“The pursuit that enriches my academic journey is being a storyteller. I can clearly observe the contribution of tourism to my storytelling and also the contribution of storytelling to my academic journey. I am the story editor of the Fatma series, which is broadcast on Netflix in 2021. Fatma was also adapted for South Africa, named Unseen in 2023. I am also co-writer of Asaf series, which is broadcast on Netflix in 2024. My first novel named Oğul (The Son) was published in January 2025. Based on my original story, Aşkı Hatırla (Reminder) is now filming in Turkey and will be broadcast on Disney Plus in 2025.

As a storyteller, I am nourished by the cultural geography that I learned through tourism. I believe that this situation provides a multidirectional perspective to my academic journey.”

Demir, Ö. & Vatan, A. (2024). Robotisation in Travel and Tourism: Tourist Guides’ Perspectives on Robot Guides, Tourism & Management Studies, 20 (2), 7-15. https://doi.org/10.18089/tms.20240202

Ulu, E. K. & Vatan, A. (2023). The relationship between cooks’ flow experience, job satisfaction and subjective well-being, Journal of Foodservice Business Research, DOI: 10.1080/15378020.2023.2251371

Vatan, A. & Tuzunkan, D. (2022). Economic Sustainability and Indicators of Most Visited Countries, Abdelli, M.E.A., Mansour, N., Akbaba, A., & Serradell-Lopez, E. (Eds.). In Sustainability, Big Data, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Tourism Industry (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003138051

Vatan, A. & Doğan, S. (2021). What do hotel employees think about service robots? A qualitative study in Turkey. Tourism Management Perspectives, 37, 1- 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100775

Vatan, A. & Bildin, E. (2020). A research evaluating the attitudes of local people towards the effects of tourism in Bozcaada. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 62, 285-305. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0123

Vatan, A. and Yilmaz, Z. (2020), New Ceramic Solutions in Sustainable Hotels within the Scope of Sustainable Innovation, Ratten, V. (Ed.) In Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 147-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-285-520201011

Doğan, S. & Vatan, A. (2019). Hotel managers’ thoughts towards new technologies and service robots’ at hotels: a qualitative study in Turkey. In Advances In Global Business And Economics (pp. 382-399). Florida: ANAHEI Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5038/9781732127555

Vatan, A. (Ed.). (2019). Turizmde kadın olmak, [Being a woman in tourism] İstanbul: Değişim Yayınları. https://www.degisimkitap.com/turizmde-kadin-olmak

Vatan, A. (Ed.). (2020). Turizm ve sanat, [Tourism and art] Ankara: Nobel Akademik https://www.nobelyayin.com/turizm-ve-sanat_16574.html

Vatan, A. (Ed.). (2021). Turizm ve inanç, [Tourism and religion] Paradigma Akademik Yayıncılık https://www.paradigmaakademiyayinlari.com/7214/turizm-ve-inanc/