Dr. Nisha BarkathunnishaCo-Founder, World Women Tourism
Founder, Elevated Consultancy & Training
Dr. Nisha is a tourism consultant, practitioner, academic and corporate trainer with more than 25 years extensive management experience in the Tourism, Hospitality and MICE industry. Her academic, research and consultancy expertise are in the areas of MICE, Destination marketing, Women in Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Halal Tourism and Tourism education. Her Ph.D thesis topic was titled “Towards a Spirituality-based Platform in Tourism Education” which proposed a spiritual orientation in the teaching and learning of tourism education to nurture a deep sense of compassion, personal responsibility and an inner consciousness in tourism stakeholder for the reconciliation of the ecological and social worlds.
Dr. Nisha is a regional and international destination management consultant with proven decades of experience in developing tourism and hospitality industry. She provides destination marketing and management consul to destination marketing teams to develop global strategies and roadmaps to establish strong positioning. Her consultancy expertise includes undertaking detailed feasibility studies, gathering market intelligence, data collection and analysis, facilitating ground up discussions with tourism boards, and relevant stakeholder agencies, designing long-term strategic plans and benchmarks and developing implementation processes.
Dr.Nisha is a co-founder of World Women Tourism, a network intelligence platform that provides opportunities to women in tourism to connect, grow and flourish. The organization visions to impact the trajectory of women in the tourism industry through promoting diversity, knowledge sharing, building networks, capacity building and opening up business opportunities. Dr. Nisha is the host of the Women We Watch in Tourism podcast series, the first global podcast featuring women leaders in tourism and hospitality businesses and their achievements in entrepreneurship, gender equality, innovation, crisis management and in many other spheres. She co-authored a book, “Undefeated: Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary”, a compilation of compelling stories of extraordinary women. To further empower Asian women leaders and unleash their potentials, Dr. Nisha designed the Asian Women Leadership Executive program and coached women professionals and entrepreneurs.
Capitalizing on her tourism and MICE experience and knowledge, she is established as a global keynote speaker, subject matter expert and panellist at major events. In recognition of her professionalism and expertise in tourism, Dr. Nisha has been bestowed with several national and international accolades.
Carolyn Turnbull
Managing Director at Tourism WA
Carolyn Turnbull is the Managing Director at Tourism WA and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the agency including the promotion of WA as an incredible tourism destination, working with industry and government to improve access, accommodation and tourism experiences and delivering a world-class events calendar. Carolyn has more than 20 years of international leadership experience in the tourism, hospitality and aviation industry and most recently, she spearheaded the development of the western gateway as Chief Aviation Development Officer at Perth Airport. Carolyn is a graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration Advanced Management Programme and holds an Executive MBA in Hospitality Management through Nanyang Business School, Singapore. She is also a graduate of the of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Please Note:
Unfortunately Professor Anne Poelina is no longer able to join us due to the severe impact of the flooding in her community in the Kimberley. We very much hope her community stays safe. A new keynote will be announced shortly.