RACHEL DODDS, PhD
Director, Sustaining Tourism

A dynamic, self starter with over 20 years international experience across a wide spectrum of the tourism industry. Rachel has worked with hotels, large and small tour operators, ecotourism planners, sustainable tourism management and marketing projects, international development banks, landscape and park planning firms, governments, NGO's, marketing organizations and hospitality and tourism attractions.

Rachel is currently the Director of Sustaining Tourism - a boutique consulting firm. She is also an Associate Professor at Ryerson University in Canada where she joined the Ted Rogers School of Tourism & Hospitality Management in 2006.

Having been trained to look at many different aspects of tourism, Rachel knows that sustainability means long term planning and management and that experience and understanding of diverse cultures and environments is a fundamental part of tourism. She has furthered this understanding through both her personal and work travels. She has now has traveled extensively to 6 continents and over 70 countries.

Rachel has two specialties within the tourism industry:

Sustainable/responsible/ecotourism consulting - strategy, development, environmental management, business planning and marketing and communications. She has undertaken a range of tourism development and marketing consulting assignments both alone and in cooperation with other companies.

Communication, marketing and public relations implementation. Her experience includes non-profit organizations, tour companies, ecolodges and entrepreneurs.


Rachel holds a PhD from the University of Surrey in the UK and a Master of Tourism Management from Griffith University in Australia. She also has undergraduate degrees in both business management and sociology from Canadian Universities.

She has taught at both colleges and universities delivering classes on sustainable tourism, research, ecotourism/adventure recreation, tourism policy and strategic business development. In addition to giving worldwide lectures on sustainable tourism and urban sustainability, she has guest lectured at events and conferences worldwide and contributes to the tourism community through a number of boards and memberships.

Rachel has written, co-authored and edited articles about sustainable tourism and ecotourism, islands and urban sustainability and has published books and numerous articles. For a list of publications, click here.

Rachel's PhD examined coastal mass tourism and sustainable tourism policy
To read her book about whether theory is being achieved in practice - click here. Her newest book: Sustainable Tourism in Islands is released by Earthscan Publications

Selected speaking engagements include but are not limited to:

• "Are you missing out on the new 'eco' consumer", Tourism Whistler AGM, May 26, 2010
• "Climate Change and Tourism" Lakehead Speaker Series, Thunder Bay, Canada, March 11, 2010
• "Climate Change and Tourism". ATTA Summit, Charlevoix, Quebec, October, 2009
• "Climate Change and Tourism" Conference Board of Canada's Leaders Roundtable on Climate Change Adaptation (LRCCA), Toronto, Canada. September 23, 2009.
• "Guatemala, a place for Culture and Sustainable Tourism" Guatemala City, September 9-11, 2009.
• "The Future of Sustainable Tourism" Future Makers or Future Takers, Victoria School of Management, New Zealand, April 10, 2009
• "Issues in Sustainable Tourism" Georgian College, Ontario, Canada, April 8, 2009
• "Koh Phi Phi: Moving Towards or Away from Sustainable Tourism" Association of American Geographers Conference, March 20, 1009
• “The Sustainable Advantage: Creating Social and Environmental Value' Ecotourism / Sustainable Tourism Panel, Wharton Business School Net Impact Conference. Pennslvania, USA, Nov 15-17, 2008
• 'Is Change a Constant? Assessment of Stakeholder Participation in Sustainable Tourism Practices in Tofino, BC' TTRA Canada Conference, Victoria, Canada, Oct 15-17, 2008
• 'Sustainable Tourism & Climate Change' TIAC Policy Conference, Ottawa, Canada, April 10, 2008
• 'CSR: The Busines Case for Responsible Tourism' CHMSE Executive Development Day, Toronto, Canada, Mar 27, 2008
• 'CSR in the Tourism Industry - a global perspective' Canada's First Responsible Tourism Conference. Toronto, Canada, Nov 22, 2007
• ' CSR in the Tourism Industry'. TTRA Canada Conference, Oct. 18-21, Charlottetown, Canada
• 'Awareness and participation of carbon offsetting' TTRA Canada conference, PEI, Canada, October 18-21, 2007
• 'Implementing Sustainable Tourism Policies and Programs - achieving a triple bottom line perspective'. Beaches World Tour, International Blue Flag Conference, Toronto, Oct 9-10, 2007.
• ' Climate Change - How it Affects Your Business.' Ontario Ministry Marketing Summit. Ottawa, Oct 3-4, 2007.
• 'Carbon Offsetting in the Tourism Industry' 5th Bi-Annual Symposium of the International Society of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research
  , Charleston, SC, June 4-6, 2007
• 'Global Business Summit' hosted by UN Global Compact and UNEP, Singapore, April 18-20, 2007
• 'Climate Change: How Will This Phenomena Affect Your Business'. ACTA Open Forum, Toronto, Feb 14, 2007
• 'Sustainable Tourism and the Future' Georgian College Careerplace Expo, Feb 1, 2007 (Keynote Contributor)
• 'Achieiving Sustainable Tourism in Malta: A Multi-Stakeholder View' Sustainable Tourism in Islands & Small States hosted by the Islands & Small States Institute, Malta, May 25-27, 2006 (Keynote Speaker)
• 'Sustainable Tourism: What is it?' Google Head Office -Environmental Day, May, 2006
• 'The Nature of Ecotourism' Birdlife Forestry Task Force Bulgaria, Oct 13-15, 2005 (Keynote Speaker)
• 'Tourism & Biodiversity' Biodiversity science that matters. 8th - 26th November 2004 e-conference on behalf of Dutch Presidency meeting of the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) (Keynote Contributor)
• 'Creating a Framework for Tourism Policy and Destination Management', World Tourism Organisation, June 2004
• Sustainable Tourism in Heritage Cities Workshop, ITR Declaration for the Barcelona Forum 2004, Cordoba, Spain, December 15, 2003 - contributor
• 'Sustainable Mass Tourism In Coastal Destinations', Rimini, Italy, December 13, 2003
• Chief Engineers Conference for Hilton International, London, UK, Sept 9, 2003 - speaker (working for the International Hotel Environmental Initiative)
• 'Sustainable Urban Tourism' (SUT Governance), Heidelberg, Germany, June 22-24, 2003 (Keynote Speaker)
• International Institute of Peace Through Tourism (IIPT), Geneva, February 5-8, 2003
• International Ecotourism Summit - Internet Marketing Lecture (The International Ecotourism Society), Quebec City, May 19-22, 2002
• World Congress IATOS (International Adventure Travel and Outdoor Show) Chicago, USA, Feb 19-22, 2002
• World's First Urban Ecotourism Conference, Herzliya, Israel, Dec, 2001 - (Keynote Speaker)
• WTO/UN Preparatory Conference for the International Year of Ecotourism, Cuiaba, Brazil, August 22-24, 2001