Maria Lichrou is a Lecturer in Marketing with the department of Management and Marketing. Her current teaching responsibilities include marketing and consumer behaviour modules to business students taking marketing as their major option as well marketing theory and tourism marketing modules to Master level business students.

Maria's research interests centre on the intersections of place marketing, consumer culture and narrative research. Places are increasingly marketed for tourism and other leisure-related consumption by national, regional and local authorities as a means of economic growth. Furthermore, tourism is a widespread consumption activity and the tourist has been theorised as a metaphor of the contemporary consumer in search for images and myths that evoke authenticity and stimulate escapism. Narrative methodologies recognise the role of language in social action and function. In doing so, they open up spaces for generating insights into stakeholder views and actions, consumer experiences and their implications for marketing, branding and policy making.