OUR TEAM
Professor Sarah Gardiner
Dr Sarah Gardiner has over 25 years of experience in the tourism industry and a PhD in Marketing. She is the Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism and a Professor in Tourism at Griffith University. She is an expert in travel consumer behaviour, travel trends, experience design and innovation. She regularly delivers presentations, consultancies and training for government and industry in these areas and has published in leading tourism journals. She is often asked to provide expert comments to the media on tourism issues and thought-leadership to government and industry.
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Professor Sarah Gardiner is the Bid Director of the CRC.
Professor Susanne Becken
Susanne Becken is a Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University in Australia where she focuses on research related to the science-policy-practice interface of transforming tourism. Susanne is globally recognised for her work on sustainable tourism with over 150 peer-reviewed outputs and 25 years of experience in managing multi-disciplinary projects, including for the United Nations, OECD, Asian Development Bank and South Pacific Tourism Organisation. She has held influential roles in public and private sectors, working with leading organisations such as Amadeus, WTTC, PATA, Air New Zealand, EarthCheck, Travalyst, the Whitsundays Climate Innovation Hub, and Te Araroa Trail. She is an elected Fellow of the International Academy of the Study of Tourism and one of only 16 recipients of the prestigious UNWTO Ulysses Award for her contribution to tourism knowledge.
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Professor Susanne Becken is the Research Director of the CRC.
Professor Daniel Gschwind
Daniel Gschwind was the CEO of Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) from 2001 to 2022, representing the industry in numerous committees and forums. In 2022, he was appointed as Professor of Practice for the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland since 2002. Daniel is the Chair of Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ), the Chair of QMF: Qld Music Trails; the Chair of the Tourism Reef Advisory Committee of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA); a director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC); a Director of Tourism Whitsundays; and a Director of the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival. Daniel is also the Honorary Consul for Switzerland in Queensland. Earlier in his career Daniel was involved in yacht charter operations in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean before relocating to Australia where he completed an Honours Degree in Economics at the University of Queensland. He worked as a Senior Economist for the Queensland Treasury for six years before taking on his tourism roles.
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Professor Daniel Gschwind is the Interim Chair of the CRC.
Professor Alan Liew
Professor Alan Liew is Head of the School of Information and Communication Technology at Griffith University, Australia. Before joining Griffith in 2007, he was an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Senior Research Fellow at City University of Hong Kong.
His research focuses on AI, machine learning, medical imaging, computer vision, and bioinformatics. He leads the AI4Health lab and co-leads the TrustAGI lab, collaborating with Gold Coast University Hospital and Queensland Health. He has published over 300 journal and conference papers, authored two books, and holds three international patents. His work appears in high-impact journals, with an H-index of 48 (Google Scholar). Professor Liew serves on editorial boards, research grant panels, and conference committees. He is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, Springer Nature Computer Science, and International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems. A Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Australian Computer Society, he is also listed among Stanford University's Top 2% Scientists for career-long impact in AI and image processing.
Professor Kirsten Holmes
Kirsten is the Director of Curtin University's Tourism Research Cluster and past Chair of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education, which represents institutions that teach and research tourism, hospitality and events in Australia and New Zealand. An experienced project manager with over 20 years’ experience delivering outcomes for industry, government and the community, Kirsten’s expertise is in events and festivals - both large scale mega events and smaller community events; and issues related to sustainability, event volunteer programs and event legacies.
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Professor Kirsten Holmes is the Leader of the Education and Training Program.
Professor Billy Sung
Dr Billy Sung is a Professor at the School of Management and Marketing, Curtin University. He specialises in digital marketing and consumer psychology, consulting for many local, international, and multinational industry partners. His research to date has been based on the study of emotion and the application of psychophysiological methodology in multiple disciplines including psychology, marketing, tourism, health, nursing, and robotics. He also leads the Consumer Research Lab at Curtin University, which specialise in the use biometric measures such as eye tracking, facial expression, and brainwave analyses to conduct consumer research.​
Professor Siggi Gudergan
Siggi Gudergan is known for his work on business innovation, transformation and performance, an area of expertise that he leads as Professor of Strategy within James Cook University in Australia. He also is a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Aalto University in Finland, Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) in Austria, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He holds various board and professional roles, and has consulted to or worked with a broad range of organisations, from start-ups to large multinational companies. He research has been published in leading management, marketing and tourism journals.
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Dr Laura Lesar
Dr Laura Lesar is a Senior Lecturer at Flinders University specialising in sustainable tourism and environmental studies. Her research focuses on quality control tools like certification programs, sustainability indicators, and ESG reporting to help tourism businesses build resilience. She has developed over 100 practical tools and a framework for industry use. Her work is published in top-ranked tourism journals (A* ABDC, Top 5% SJR), and she received the Early Career Researcher Excellence Award at Flinders University. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Travel Research (A)* and won its Best Reviewer Award in 2023. Dr Lesar has led global sustainability projects with Royal Caribbean, Expedia, Experience Gold Coast, and government agencies in Australia, the USA, Chile, and Southeast Asia. She has delivered invited keynotes for the World Tourism Summit, the U.S. Department of State, and the International Conference on Tourism and Entrepreneurship. She holds a PhD in Sustainable Tourism (Griffith University), an MSc (University of Hawai‘i), and a BA (UC Santa Cruz, Honours).
Interested in getting involved?
Round 26 of The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) by the Australian Government is currently open. We are collating all interested partner documentation from business, industry association and government for the Bid Submission before the 11 April, 2025.
If successful, the Next-Gen Visitor Economy CRC from 2026-2033 will be established.
We'd love to discuss opportunities for you to become a partner to assist in achieving your R&D outcomes and future business strategy. You could receive up to 50% of eligible project costs for a medium-to-long-term R&D collaboration.
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To discuss how you could participate, please contact:
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Professor Sarah Gardiner
+61 7 5552 7163