Peter's tertiary education experience covers three continents and three course areas. He has been a student and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics in England. He studied and taught in the U.S., before going on to Victoria, B.C.,Canada for the majority of his research and teaching career. His first academic interest was Economic Geography, which was followed by Business and Tourism Management as he witnessed the economic structure of Vancouver Island change from a primary industry focus to a balanced economy and then a service sector emphasis. Along the way he has enjoyed the various national forms of football around the world, be it football (soccer) in England, football (gridiron) in the U.S. and Canada, or football (AFL) in Australia.

Peter's research interests have always been oriented to practical solutions for common problems. This has led him to work with local communities to seek answers to economic problems and quality of life issues. As a result he has worked with residents, planners, business and government officials on a variety of research and consultancy projects that has created strong links between 'town and gown'. Over the years he has undertaken consulting work for Franklin County and San Juan County in the U.S., and the City of Victoria, Tourism Victoria and the British Columbia Ministry of Tourism in Canada. He has served on the boards of Tourism Victoria (Canada) and Bendigo Tourism. Along the way he has been awarded The Roy Wolfe Award by the American Association of Geographers for his contribution to tourism research and has been elected to the International Academy for the Study of Tourism.

His academic speciality is in the field of tourism management and within that he focuses on the issues of community tourism. Apart from these personal interests he finds his numerous postgraduate students have led him down a myriad of interesting paths and to tantalising parts of the world, for which he is extremely grateful.

After more than 35 years as an academic Peter has a plethora of publications.