Colin Drake is a senior lecturer within the Victoria Graduate School of Business.

Colin joined the Victoria University Business School (VUBS) faculty in 2010 and is head of Tourism and Hospitality Management and head of Event Management. He lectures in the marketing, event and tourism management disciplines. Colin has been a visiting professor to Germany, Malaysia and Scotland and until recently oversaw the MBA program (2015-2020). Colin is currently the Deputy Chair of Western Melbourne Tourism Inc. a regional destination management organisation representing tourism stakeholders in six local government areas to the West of Melbourne.

He is a Churchill Fellow, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and was awarded the Wallmans Lawyers MBA prize for E-Business in 2005 from the University of Adelaide.

Prior to entering academia, Colin spent 25 years in the corporate sector as well as establishing a successful event management company. Colin has held a range of management and marketing roles in the events, aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors in Australia, UK and New Zealand.

Portfolios

Areas of expertise

  • Event management
  • Tourism
  • Marketing communications
  • Corporate social responsibility

Contact details

+61 (3) 9919 9551
colin.drake@vu.edu.au

Publications

Drake, C.N., Italiano, J. 2015 “An exploratory study of the attitudes, motivations and awareness of visitors towards accredited and non-accredited Visitor Information Centres in Victoria, Australia” Peer reviewed conference paper proceedings CAUTHE 2015, Southern Cross University, Sunshine Coast, Queensland 2015

Drake, C.N. 2014 “Does Corporate Hospitality at Special Events deliver Customer Loyalty?” Peer Reviewed Paper, Proceedings of CAUTHE 2014, Brisbane, Queensland

Drake, C.N. 2013 “Maximising effectiveness of corporate hospitality programmes at Australian special events”, International Journal of Event and Festival Management Vol 4, 3, pp 236-248

Drake, C 2012 “Will Tourism Operators get lost in Qantas face off with Tourism Australia?” The Conversation, http://theconversation.edu.au/will-tourist-operators-end-up-getting-lost...

Drake, C 2012 “Arresting the Decline in MICE sector skills” MICE Newsletter The Nibbler published March 2012

Drake, C 2011 “A conceptual framework for assessing the role that Corporate Hospitality plays on customer loyalty and purchase intentions” Victoria University

Drake, C.N., Jago, L, Deery, M 2010 “What future for Corporate Hospitality Post the GFC? An appraisal of marketing effectiveness” Refereed paper Proceedings of CAUTHE 2010, Hobart

Drake, C.N., Jago, L, Deery, M 2009 “Corporate Hospitality at Special Events is it Fundamental in B2B marketing Communications or just “froth and bubble?” Refereed paper proceedings of 5th Event Research Conference, Gold Coast, Queensland

Professional membership