Dr Filep has been at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management since 3 August 2020 and holds the positions of Associate Professor and Assistant Dean (International Collaboration). Prior to joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Sebastian was an academic at the Department of Tourism, University of Otago, New Zealand where he worked for eight years (2012-2020). His major leadership role at that university included serving as Associate Dean International for Otago Business School. Prior to 2012, he worked as a Research Fellow at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia and as Researcher and Lecturer at MODUL University Vienna, Austria.

Sebastian Filep has been developing a humanist platform of research focusing on investigations of well-being, happiness and flourishing in tourism, primarily drawing from the field of positive psychology. Sebastian has worked closely with the health and wellness tourism sector in Australia and with national tourism government ministries in the Asia-Pacific region. He led government- funded research projects on sustainable tourism development and well-being in the Pacific. Dr Filep has published 3 major books in tourism, and close to 80 scholarly articles, book chapters and research reports. Selected publications are shown below. He is an Associate Editor of journal Leisure Sciences and is on editorial boards of multiple tourism, leisure and hospitality journals

• PhD (2009) James Cook University, Australia
• BM (Hons) (2005) University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
• BBusBA (2004) University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

• Tourism Management