Tourism lecturer wins prestigious award

Dr Narelle Beaumont with her prestigious award

Just how important are sustainable business practices to today’s traveller when choosing where to spend their holiday dollars?

This was one of the questions posed by USQ Springfield Tourism Lecturer Dr Narelle Beaumont in her award winning paper presented in Hobart this month.

Dr Beaumont received the award for Best Paper in Ethics, Environment and Sustainability at the Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) Conference, attended by more than 200 delegates from Australia and 12 overseas countries.

Dr Beaumont said she was thrilled to receive this honour from her peers at the conference.

'The conference was an opportunity for tourism educators to hear the latest research results and to have my paper singled out was wonderful,' she said.

The paper, titled Identifying the ecotourist market using the core criteria of ecotourism: Is there a true ecotourist that seeks nature, learning and sustainability, focussed on how ecotourists have been identified in previous studies using only the nature and learning criteria of ecotourism. It also considered sustainability.

'I am about to undertake further study into this subject to explore whether tourists consider the sustainable practices of the tourism destination when choosing an ecotourism holiday or experience.

'It is an interesting subject and given the way ecotourism destinations market themselves today, a relevant one as sustainability has become an important concept in the business world.'

Tourism Management is offered as a major in the Bachelor of Business at USQ Springfield.

Contact Details:
Jo-Ann Sparrow, USQ Media, +61 7 3470 4119 or 0438 309 096