William (Bill) C. Gartner, Ph.D., is a professor in the Applied Economics Department at the University of Minnesota, USA. His research interests include branding, image, economic impact, and tourism development. He has worked extensively in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa and holds visiting professor positions at four different international universities. He is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters and books on tourism development. In addition, he has conducted economic impact, baseline monitoring, policy analysis and branding studies for the grape and wine industry in twelve U.S. states as part of the Northern Grapes project. He is a Fellow and past President of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism.