RACHEL DODDS, PhD
Director, Sustaining Tourism

A dynamic, self starter with over 18 years international experience across a wide spectrum of the tourism industry. Rachel has worked with hotels, large and smsll tour operators, ecotourism managers, 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 consulting firm and is also an Assistant Professor at Ryerson University in Canada where she joined the Ted Rogers School of Tourism & Hospitality Management in 2006. Rachel is also a founding member and Board Member of Canada's Icarus Foundation - an NGO initiated to help Canada become a carbon neutral destination.

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 60 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 both colleges and universities delivering classes on sustainable tourism, research, ecotourism/adventure recreation, tourism issues and strategic business development. In addition to giving worldwide lectures on sustainable tourism and urban sustainability, she has guest lectured at universities and colleges 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 urban ecotourism and green marketing and was a key player in the research, writing and editing of the first urban ecotourism guide. For publications, click here.

Rachel's PhD examined coastal mass tourism and sustainable tourism policy
To read a one page summary of her findings about whether theory is being achieved in practice - click here. If you would like to order a copy of this dissertation, please contact us.

Selected speaking engagements include but are not limited to:

• '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 www.responsibletravelandtourism.com
• ' 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