phD/ECR PANEL speakers

Professor Erica Wilson

Professor Erica Wilson is Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Innovation) at Southern Cross University and the Chair of CAUTHE. Erica has published over 80 scholarly outputs in the tourism field, including two co-edited books: 'Women and Travel: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives' (2017) and 'Slow Tourism: Experiences and Mobilities' (2012). Erica is passionate about supporting tourism education, research and higher degree studies; she has supervised a number of PhDs, Masters by Research and Honours theses to successful completion.Erica is a long-term member of CAUTHE, having attended her first conference in Canberra, 2000, as a PhD student.  She earned a CAUTHE Fellows Award in 2013 for outstanding contribution to both research and teaching, and has recently joined the CAUTHE Fellows (2020).

Sara Dolnicar

Sara Dolnicar is a Professor of Tourism at The University of Queensland and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. She develops and experimentally tests practical measures that trigger pro-environmental consumer behaviour in enjoyment-focused contexts, such as tourism and hospitality. She has published more than 300 papers and won more than 30 awards for her work, including being named Slovenian Ambassador of Science in 2016, the highest honour the Republic of Slovenia bestows on expatriate Slovenian researchers in recognition of global excellence, impact, and knowledge transfer. Sara is the Co-editor in Chief of Annals of Tourism Research. You can follow Sara on twitter (@SaraDolnicar) where she shares her research findings on #LowHarmHedonism as well as insights about publishing from the perspective of a journal editor (#editorobservation).

Dr. Nisha Barkathunnisha

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.

Professor Marianna Sigala

Professor Marianna Sigala is an international research authority specializing in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and hospitality and tourism experience management. She has a long record of leadership and participation in international research projects funded by various entities such as the E.U. and the Council of Europe. She has served at the executive board of ICHRIE, EuroCHRIE and IFITT. In 2016, she has been awarded the prestigious EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements to tourism and hospitality education. Since 2020, Professor Sigala is also appointed as Research Fellow of CAUTHE.