About Ross Dowling

Dr Ross Dowling is Foundation Professor of Tourism, School of Marketing, Tourism & Leisure, Faculty of Business & Law, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Internationally he is an Advisor, UNESCO Global Network of National Geoparks (France), Executive Board Member of the Indian Ocean Tourism Organization (Oman), and Co-founder, International Cruise Research Society (Germany). In 2011 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to hospitality & tourism, education and the development of ecotourism.

In Australia he is Co-founder and Executive Director of Ecotourism Australia; Board Member of Australia’s Coral Coast Tourism Marketing Board; Chair, Australia’s Geoparks Network; and Advisor to Cruise Down Under. In Western Australia he is Chair of the Forum Advocating Cultural and Eco Tourism (FACET) as well as a Council Member of the - Royal Automobile Club, the Conservation Commission of WA, and the National Trust.

Professor Dowling conducts international research in the fields of geotourism, cruise ship tourism and ecotourism and has over 200 publications. In recent years he has co-authored or co-edited ten books on tourism. They are Ecotourism, Tourism in Destination Communities, Natural Area Tourism, Ecotourism Policy and Planning, Wildlife Tourism, Geotourism, Cruise Ship Tourism, Coastal Tourism Development, Geotourism: The Tourism of Geology and Landscape and Global Geotourism Perspectives. Two have been translated into Chinese, one into Persian and others published in India.