Biography

Dr Shirley Chin Wei Lee is an assistant professor in Universiti of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) who strives for teaching and research excellence in her areas of interest, which include but are not limited to global concerns such as sustainability issues, tourism impacts, disadvantaged communities, and education.

She holds a BA (Hons) First class in Tourism management, Master of Philosophy in Management, and was later upgraded to her PhD in Tourism Management in the UK. She has also held several administrative positions and was the Programme Leader of the Geography, Environment and Development Programme—one of the biggest programmes within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences—while at the same time being involved in different faculty committees. She was previously also the GenNext Coordinator of FASS and is still an active member of the Entrepreneurship Village, a National Entrepreneurship Agenda (NEA) in Brunei Darussalam under the Ministry of Education which aims to create and support high growth entrepreneurs as well as drive job creation and economic growth in the country.

In addition, Dr Shirley was also a recipient of a professional fellowship from the U.S. Department of State to represent Brunei in the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) program in Washington D.C and California. She was also selected for various YSEALI events such as Eco and Sustainable Tourism in Luang Prabang, Laos; Empowering Educators in Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur; and the Generation Green Eco-entrepreneurship workshop in Brunei.

Teaching

• AW 1304 Tourism: Concepts and Models
• AW 2314 Ecotourism
• AD/AV/AW 3307 Sustainability Research Through Experiential Learning
• AW-3313 Tourism in Developing Countries
• AW-3314 Tourism, Society and Development
• AW 4201 Research Project
• Blended learning at C3L

Research Interests

• Tourism community development
• Tourism impacts, socio-economic prosperity
• Tourism in less developing countries
• Quality of life-welfare of the citizens
• Small-scale tourism
• Film tourism
• Destination competitiveness
• Agritourism
• Ecotourism

Current Research Projects

• Exploring the Potential of Agritourism in Brunei (Principal Investigator)
• Teraja Ecotourism Development Project: Facilitating Sustainable Growth (Principal Investigator) — External Funding
• Environmental Assessment on Brunei River for Sustainable Tourism (Co-Principal Investigator)
• Gender Analysis of Transnational Migration: Local-Global Interactions (Co-Principal Investigator)

For details of the project please see: https://expert.ubd.edu.bn/weilee.chin

Past Research Projects

• Cross Border Tourism Between Brunei and Eastern Malaysia (Link)
• Analysing the Link Between Destination Competitiveness and Socio-economic Prosperity

Upcoming Research Project

• A Strengths-Based Approach (SBA) to Community-Led Tourism in Brunei
• Architectural Heritage in Brunei Darussalam: Safeguarding, Identity and Sustainability

Research Grant Details

University Tourism Research Grants

Title: Exploring the Potential of Agritourism in Brunei (Principal Investigator)
Amount: B$ 19,500.00
Period: 2020–2022

Title: Environmental Assessment on Brunei River for Sustainable Tourism (Co-Principal Investigator)
Amount: B$ 20,000.00
Period: 2020–2022

External Grant

Title: Teraja Ecotourism Development Project: Facilitating Sustainable Growth (Principal Investigator)
Amount: B$ 12,200.00
Period: 2019–2021

Faculty Research Grant

Title: Gender Analysis of Transnational Migration: Local-Global Interactions (Co-Principal Investigator)
Amount: B$ 29,275.00
Period: 2019–2021

Publications

Journal Articles

Amalena Adli, & Chin, W. L. (2021). Homestay accommodations in Brunei Darussalam: An exploratory study. Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(1), 15–29. (PDF Version).

Liu, Y., Chin, W. L., Nechita, F., & Candrea, A. N. (2020). Framing film-induced tourism into a sustainable perspective from Romania, Indonesia and Malaysia. Sustainability, 12(23), 9910. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239910

Chin, W. L., & Hampton, P. M. (2020). The relationship between destination competitiveness and residents’ quality of life: Lessons from Bali. Tourism and Hospitality Management. (Link)

Ullah, A. A., Chin, W. L., Noor Hasharina Hasan, & Nawaz, F. (2020). Xenophobia in the GCC countries: Migrants’ desire, dream and despair. Global Affairs, 6(2), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1738951   |   (PDF Version)

Chin, W. L., & Liu, Y. (2018). The film-induced tourism development in Brunei: Perspectives and potentiality. Borneo Research Journal, 12, 36-56. (Link)

Chin, W. L., Haddock-Fraser, J., & Hampton, P. M. (2015). Destination competitiveness: Evidence from Bali. Current Issues in Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2015.1111315   |   (PDF Version)

Book Chapters

Chin, W. L., & Liu, Y. (2025). The new hallmarks of film-induced tourism amid the post COVID-19 new norm in Southeast Asia. In M. Valeri (Ed.), Film and tourism: Tourism, hospitality & event management (pp. 65-80). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-86874-0_5 (PDF Version).

Conference Papers

Lopes, R. O., Owais Ahmed Malik, Asiyah Az-Zahra Ahmad Kumpoh, Keasberry, C., Ong, W. H., Chin, W. L., Liu, Y. (2019). Exploring digital architectural heritage in Brunei Darussalam: Towards heritage safeguarding, smart tourism, and interactive education [Conference session]. The 2019 IEEE Fifth International Conference on Multimedia Big Data (BigMM), Singapore. (Link)

Working Papers

Chin, W. L. (2017). Tourism, communities, and quality of life indicators in Bali (Institute of Asian Studies Working Paper No. 29). Universiti Brunei Darussalam. (Link)