Societal values and local responses to ecotourism amongst villagers in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Nicola Palmer

Sheffield Hallam University

Nicola is currently Head of Research Programmes for Sheffield Business School (SBS) and SHU Head of Doctoral Training, Deputy Chair of the SHU Research Degrees Sub-Committee and SHU Lead for Professional Doctorates. She also sits on the EFMD Doctoral Steering Group and the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce's Visitor Economy sub-group. Nicola won a SHU Inspirational Research Supervisor award in 2014 and was nominated as a SHU Inspirational Woman in 2016. Her academic background lies in Tourism Studies and she has researched and taught at UK universities since the 1990s (with some teaching experience at Spanish and Swedish universities also). Nicola has a strong background in consultancy and has worked on projects for a range of clients including the EU, government offices, regional development agencies (RDAs), and destination marketing organisations (DMOs). She is the co-author of Royal Tourism: Excursions around Monarchy, an international text that explores both implicit and explicit relationships between royalty and tourism through a range of range of historical, sociological and cultural perspectives. Nicola has an interest in socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political tourism issues. She retains an interest in post-soviet and transitional tourism development issues. Her research interests are aligned through consideration of community engagement, inequalities and socially constructed/selective 'realities' and include: Destination image/identity representation; Tourist destination development; National-, regional-, local-level place policy; Tourism culture, ethnicity, social class and heritage; Eco-tourism development; Visitor economy and regeneration. Nicola has supervised 7 PhDs and 1 DBA to completion and has examined 14 doctorates.