PhD Research

My PhD research was focused on establishing and analysing links between style and degree of tourism development and social aspects of community well-being in Australian Tropical communities. The full thesis can be downloaded HERE

Measuring Tourism at a Destination

A set of measures for facets of tourism development was devised and tested in three tropical regional Australian communities using the available secondary data.

Research Outputs:

  • A paper reporting on the study titled "Measuring Tourism: developing a regional level framework for assessing tourism impacts" was presented at an international conference and published in the conference proceedings

  • The paper was selected for BEST EN Lecture Series Initiative and Online tutorial consisting of a twenty minutes video recording and available for downloading PowerPoint slides was prepared. BEST EN provides free teaching modules on sustainable tourism. The course material is open to educators, students and the industry to learn and collaborate for sustainable tourism education.

Measuring Social Aspects of Community Well-being

After establishing specific differences in the style and degree of tourism development at the selected locations in the previous study, this study aimed to assess social aspects of community well-being at the locations and resident's perceptions about tourism impacts in their communities. A residents survey on the topic was conducted at each of the three locations during Feb 2013 - May 2014, and 597 responses was received.

Research Outputs:

    • A sixty-five page report on the survey findings was prepared and forwarded to local government, community and tourism bodies at each of the locations. Report is available on request by e-mailing elena.konovalov@my.jcu.edu.au

  • Presentations of the survey findings to communities stakeholders and government representatives were organised at the end of 2014.

Published media articles about the survey findings:

Media releases about the survey can be found here:

Airlie Beach and Whitsundays, Atherton Tablelands, Results

Measuring Social Tourism Impacts

This study followed up on the survey findings and consisted of workshops for community stakeholders at the selected locations (Atherton Tablelands workshop was held on September 18, 2014, Bowen and Airlie Beach workshops were help on October 13 and 14 respectively). The organised workshops focused on identifying the ways in which sustainable tourism development could contribute to the three regions' community well-being. Representatives of local councils, tourism organisations, tourism operators, small business owners and other interested community stakeholders participated and contributed their thoughts and ideas. Specific tourism strategies for each of the region to act on were generated as a result of the workshops.

Research Outputs:

  • A report summarising the Atherton Tablelands workshop ideas and specific tourism development strategies generated was forwarded to community stakeholders (report is available on request: elena.konovalov@my.jcu.edu.au)

  • A report summarising the Bowen and the Airlie Beach workshops ideas and specific tourism development strategies generated for each of the region was forwarded to community stakeholders (report is available on request: elena.konovalov@my.jcu.edu.au)