Jury 2023 (International)

Akihiro Kashima is a professor at the Multicultural Planning & Design Laboratory, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Setsunan University in Osaka, Japan. He holds a PhD in planning history from the Kyoto Institute of Technology. He worked as a practicing architect at the Town Hall of Girona, Spain in 1993 and since, his research interests lie in the planning history, especially, of Spanish towns, planning heritage, and civic pride and urban commons, community resources, etc. As a teacher of architectural planning and city planning, Akihiro works on a wide field of projects and methodology rediscovering urban commons and community resources.

Alexander V. Kammel is President and Owner of Filmservice International, which is Europe’s biggest organizer of corporate film festivals. He is festival director of 3 well known festivals named “Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage”, “AutoVision Awards” and “Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards”. Further he is co-founder and festival director of the Grand Prix CIFFT for the worlds-best tourism films and organizer of the “Staatspreis Wirtschaftsfilm” the State Award for Corporate Films, held every two years on the initiative of the Austrian Ministry for Digital and Economic affairs in Austria.

Direct corporate and government film projects such as promotion, TV commercial, documentary in sports, culture and nature world all around Japan.
2020 JWTFF Japan competition Grand Prix award winner. Based in Tokyo Japan.

Che-Jen Su holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from National Taipei University, Taiwan. He is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan. Meanwhile, he is an associate editor of Service Business: An International Journal (SSCI listed), regional editor (Asia) of the Journal of Global Business and Technology (EBSCO listed), chief international editor of the Journal of Morisita Memorial Research, and an editorial member of Communications – Scientific Letters of the University of Zilina (Scopus listed). Professor Su’s international titles include the president of the Euro-Asia Tourism Studies Association, professor of Hanyang University (Seoul, South Korea), chair researcher of Morishita Memorial & Research Foundation (Kyoto, Japan), Fulbright Senior Researcher of the State University of New York (Old Westbury, NY, USA), visiting scholar of the University of Burgundy (Dijon, France), visiting senior fellow of Wakayama University (Wakayama, Japan), visiting scholar of Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (Seoul, South Korea), and visiting scholar of the City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China). His research interests are interpersonal influence in tourist contexts, international tourism management, and cross-cultural tourist behavior.

Don Falsario II is a Filipino director based in Manila, Philippines.

His career kicked off with a local boutique production house where he started as a video editor. This paved the way for him to explore and master videography, photography, motion graphics and color grading, all of which ultimately led to directing. This versatility proved more than helpful in realizing his vision in telling stories.

His oeuvre is an eclectic mix of current digital films (with strong focus on documentary-based films featuring non-actors, tourism films, among others. He has also worked with both global and local clients including the BBC, the United Nations, Unilever, to name a few.

One of his most acclaimed work, a tourism film for the Tubbataha Reefs in Palawan entitled “Tubbataha: A National Treasure,” competed and won in numerous documentary/tourism film festivals across the globe. The film’s multiple wins landed him a spot as a jury member in two tourism film festivals in Portugal (12th Art&Tur Tourism Film Festival) and Japan (2nd Japan’s World Tourism Film Festival)

Francisco Dias holds a PhD degree in Tourism Science from the University of Perpignan, France. He is Professor in the Leiria Polytechnic, Diretor of the ART&TUR – International Tourism Film Festival and vice-president of the Centro de Portugal Film Commission. He was the founder and first presidente of EATSA – The Euro-Asia Tourism Studies Association. His is the creator and mistermind of many international projects, such as the newest EATSA Art & Tourism Film Festival, the Favourite Destinations Worldwide research project, the International Conference on Tourism Marketing and Destination Branding. Some of his studies have been published in several leading journals, such as Annals of Tourism Research, British Food Journal, Community Development and European Journal of Tourism Research.

Chern grew up in Texas and attended Plano East Senior High School in Plano, Texas, where he started his first web company at age 17. He was an all-state violinist, professional gamer and green belt double gold medalist in the U.S. Taekwondo Junior National Championships. When he was young, he made a three-minute short film that eventually aired on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. He also interned at the ReelFX creative studio (where he got assistance from Corey Snyder on his animated short film Dk9000), and received a scholarship from the Wishful Wings Artist Competition.He then attended and graduated, with honors, from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2006, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Film/Cinema/Video Studies (summa cum laude), and also graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Film Directing from the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2009.

Professor, Faculty of Tourism, Wakayama University/Creating Happiness Incubation, Musashino University, Japan. Board of Directors, Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Advisor, Global Himalayan Expedition

Creativity and Criticality for Sustainability as a principle, empowering communities through sustainable tourism is her mission. Works include: Kato, K. (2019). Gender and Sustainability – exploring ways of knowing: an ecohumanities perspective, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 27(7), 939-956; Kato, K. (2015). Australia’s whaling discourse: global norm, green consciousness and identity, Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 39 (4), 477-493 (John Barrett Award for Best Paper). Many of her works have led to creative projects: Waiting for the Tide (ABC Radio, https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/world-docos/working-in-water/12240026), Fukushima: In search of New lights (https://www.mirainomatsuri-fukushima.jp/20190806-2021.html), Sound Garden (https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2009/01/eco-art-opens-roma-street-parkland). She currently leads a national project to implement Japan Sustainable Tourism Standard for Destinations (Japan Tourism Agency).

Dr Kyung Wook Seo is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Northumbria university in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. He worked as an architect in South Korea, Malaysia and the USA to design many residential and commercial buildings. As a theorist, he published numerous papers based on his research interests, Housing Form and Culture, Morphological Analysis on Building and Cities, and Environmental Behaviour. Dr Seo was a Principal Researcher for the recently finished project, ‘Development of Structure-Infill Housing for the Low-income Population in Malaysia’ funded by British Council in the UK.

I opened my eyes to the enjoyment of traveling the world with just my backpack in my student days. Since then, I have traveled in a variety of ways, using a combination of local buses and hitching lifts in Morocco, as well as island hopping around the Japanese archipelago on local fishermen’s boats. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was connected online with the tourist association of the Izu Islands in Tokyo, including the Niijima island award-winning JWTFF 2020 and a photography classroom owner. We have talked about how to attract customers every week, after that they organized their photo session tour and photo exhibition. That became an opportunity to make horizontal relationship each islands. I will introduce you to some of the fascinating people and places from my trip with photos for the post-pandemic era.

Born in Tokyo in 1958. Graduated from Nihon University, Faculty of Law, Department of Newspaper. Since his student days, he has photographed local trains in Hokkaido and Tohoku, documentaries, animals and sports. After graduating, he worked for an advertising agency until 1988, when he left the agency after eight years. In 1988, after eight years at the agency, he left to go on a solo motorbike tour of Australia, where he fell in love with the continent and nature photography. He tries not to stay in a hotel, but always camps at the location to be at one with the continent. He was the first Japanese photographer to hold a major exhibition in Australia at the Wilderness Gallery, Australia’s largest photography gallery, and has since held exhibitions around the world. He is currently a Friends of Tasmania Ambassador for the State Government of Tasmania, Australia.In 2008, he represented Japan in the Adobe Photo Adventure, which brought together 17 photographers from around the world. He is an Asahi Pentax registered professional artist and a member of Nikon Professional Services.
Winner of the 2008 Chunichi Shimbun Advertising Award for “Experience Australia“ (Tourism Australia)

Associate professor of Kobe Shoin Women’s University　 Specializes in research on regional brand marketing and tourism marketing.

Naoki Nozu is a lecturer of tourism and transport at Professional College of Arts and Tourism, Toyooka Japan. Since 2020, he directs the tourists’ mobility design in Toyooka Theater Festival as a mobility director. He worked as a transport consultant for Navitime Japan, one of the Japanese major navigation company, in charge of traffic big data management business. As a researcher, he have been analyzed traffic big data to know tourism dynamics, especially about increasing foreign tourists in Japanese rural areas using mobile navigation apps. In 2015 and 2016, his presentations about tourism big data won the grand prizes at annual main conferences in Society for Tourism Informatics in Japan.

My name is Robert Dacesin and I am a travel blogger and filmmaker from Bosnia and Herzegovina with more than 250 000 followers on my Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook page.

For the last three years, I have been filming my travels on a TV show called “Around the world with Robert Dacesin” which is shown on two TV stations. The videos featured in this TV series are usually my travels around the world and so far I did more than 100 episodes from over 30 countries. But, my biggest mission is actually to promote my country and its beauties. In the year 2022. with one good friend, I created a video titled “Why Bosnia and Herzegovina can be number 1 travel destination in the world” which won several awards in festivals around the world and also the People’s choice award for the best travel video in the world by CIFFT.

Besides this, I visited 89 countries on 5 continents so far and I wrote 4 travel books, two of which are about promoting my country and my city. I speak active English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian language and I also communicate in the Slovak language. I have my own TV show on one of my TV channels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I try to promote all the hidden places in our country as well as in the world. I have a Master’s Degree in International Management and I work in the area of digital marketing.

Documentary filmmaker, Consultant and Producer. Through his production company Filmsnòmades, Santi Valldepérez has produced and directed several commercials and documentaries for TV. Santi Valldepérez has played an important role in the execution of Terres Travel Festival – Films & Creativity (Tortosa, Spain), member of CIFFT (International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals) since 2019. Since October 2016 he leads the communication consultancy PVS Media, specializing in communicative support to tourism companies.

SPOMENKA SARAGA is Zagreb Tourfilm Festival’s Director, a festival seated in Croatia’s capital. Photographer, filmmaker, travel journalist and an avid adventurer, Spomenka travels to the most exotic corners of the world. Her film experience, gained in the famous Jadran Film Studio – referred to at that time as European Hollywood – was won through holding highly responsible financial and production posts and making films together with famous directors, actors and other producers.

After that she founded her own company, BALDUČI FILM, producing many successful documentaries, feature and tourism promotional films. Spomenka has been awarded numerous prizes in Croatian and International Film Festivals and is a Member of the Croatian Association of Film Workers, the Croatian Producers Association and the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers.

Member of the Jury at the Deauville Green Awards – France, Baku International Tourism Film Festival – Azerbaijan, ART&TUR Portugal, SILAFEST – Serbia, AMORGOS International Film Festival – Greece, Cappadocia Tourism Film Festival – Turkey, Finisterra Arrábida Film Art & Tourism Festival -Portugal, ITFF Africa – Cape Town, South Africa,  JWTFF – Japan, etc.

Yanki is Associate Professor of Management at Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia. She earned MBA degree from University of the Philippines and obtained Master of Science and Doctor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Universitas Indonesia. After gaining fifteen years of professional experiences in various industries as Human Resources practitioner, she then decided to take the plunge into the academic world. Since 2010, she has been invited to share her knowledge and disseminate her research findings in Asia and Europe. Her research focuses on leadership, cultural values, human resources management, and cyber behavior among multi-generational employees and travelers.

Yoshiko Nomura is a professor at the faculty of Economics of Setsunan University in Osaka. She received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Kobe University. She also completed doctoral course at the Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies of Hokkaido University. Her field of expertise are the Tourism Studies and the Organizational Behavior. After more than 20 year working experience in the airline industry, including expat experience in Paris and New York, she changed her career to the academic field. Serves jury from the beginning of the JWTFF.

Young Choi, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Department of Cross-Cultural Studies, Kanagawa University.
Her research interests include : Place marketing & branding, theory and practice of tourism product developing.
She currently researches the relationship about creative industries and tourism marketing in Japan.