Dr Gloria Crabolu (She/Her)

Gloria Crabolu is a Lecturer in Sustainable Tourism at the University of Exeter Business School, Cornwall. She is currently doing a secondment at the Evaluation Task Force, a joint Cabinet Office-HM Treasury Unit to advise on systems approaches in net zero policy evaluation. 

She has completed a PhD and Post-doc in sustainable tourism management at the University of Surrey. During her PhD she used systems approaches to investigate the role of sustainable tourism indicator schemes in creating positive transformational change at tourism destinations. In 2021, she was part of the pool of experts who worked with the European Commission to co-create the European Tourism Transition Pathway for 2030, aimed at decarbonising and digitalising the tourism industry. In the past, she has been involved in two projects: 1) the DMOcracy project to reshape the role and operational functioning of Destination Marketing Organisations to align them to the regenerative development principles, and 2) the World Animal Protection ‘You’ve Been Ranked’ project to assess international travel companies on their policies and practices in regard to wild animal welfare.

Prior to her academic career, she worked for more than two years in Myanmar for the Luxembourg Development Agency for a 5M project aimed at developing sustainable tourism in the country. Her main role involved the design and management of the project monitoring system. She was also involved in the development of quality standards for community-based tourism projects, in the design and delivery of basic sustainable tourism courses, in the development of curricula for a new BA in tourism and hospitality management, in the conduction of various research activities for the development of the Myanmar HR strategy in tourism, and in the development of a handbook targeted to Bed & Breakfasts and guesthouses in Myanmar.

Interests:

Research interests: sustainable tourism, complexity science, policy design and analysis, monitoring and evaluation, transition management