Rate My Professor Lisa Ruhanen

Dr. Lisa Ruhanen (PhD, GCEd, BBusHons, The University of Queensland) serves as Professor in Tourism and Deputy Head of School (Graduate Education, Tourism and Marketing) in the University of Queensland Business School. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from The University of Queensland. Ruhanen has undertaken more than 35 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas, specializing in Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, and policy, planning, and governance. She led research for Federal and State governments, including the inaugural ‘Queensland Indigenous Tourism Strategy,’ and is co-lead for the First Nations Tourism Research Hub, an initiative of the Queensland First Nations Tourism Council. For over a decade, she has collaborated with United Nations Tourism on various projects, including a secondment to its headquarters in Madrid, and serves as an Advisory Board member and auditor for the UN Tourism TedQual accreditation program. She actively supports start-up Indigenous tourism businesses and organizations in Australia by applying her research expertise to visitor demand analysis, market opportunities, and product development strategies.

Ruhanen’s research interests include Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, tourism destination planning, knowledge management, governance, and climate change. She has authored or co-authored over 150 academic publications. Major works include the co-edited book Indigenous Tourism: Cases from Australia and New Zealand (2017) and Tourism, Global Crises and Justice: Tourism Transition to a More Just and Sustainable Future (2024). Highly influential publications are “The positive and negative impacts of tourism” (2012), “Trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research: A 25-year bibliometric analysis” (2015, 756 citations), “Local government: facilitator or inhibitor of sustainable tourism development?” (2013), “Governance: a review and synthesis of the literature” (2010), and “Indigenous peoples and tourism: The challenges and opportunities for sustainable tourism” (2016). Recent contributions feature “Climate change and tourism transition: from cosmopolitan to local justice” (2023, Annals of Tourism Research) and “Curating local voices to construct projected destination image: A case study of the ‘Join Me in Jamaica’ campaign” (2026, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management). In 2015-2016, she received maternity funding from the Queensland Government Advance Queensland Women's Academic Fund. Ruhanen teaches in the areas of sustainable and responsible tourism, ethics, and tourism in developing countries.