Lénia Marques is Assistant Professor of Cultural Organizations and Management, at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands). With over 15 years experience in education, research and international consultancy, she has worked previously as Senior Lecturer in Events and Leisure at Bournemouth University (UK) and Lecturer of Imagineering and Research at Breda University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands).
She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the World Leisure Organization. She was the founder of the World Leisure Organization Special Group Interest in Leisure and Innovation in 2018, and she is currently the chair. Lénia Marques is also involved internationally with public and private projects, organizations and networks. She is the co-editor of Intercultural Crossings (2012), special issue on Creative tourism (2012), Event Design: Social Perspectives and Practices (2014), Creative Districts around the World(2014), and special issue on Leisure and Innovation (2019, forthcoming). She is the author of several publications in comparative literature, event studies, leisure, creative tourism and creative industries, such as “Co-creating the city: Digital technology and creative tourism” (2017, co-authored) or “Making the literary city (2019, forthcoming)”, as well as reports on current challenges, such as “Synergies between culture and tourism” (2018, co-authored).