Noreen Breakey

Dr Noreen Breakey is a Lecturer in the School of Business within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Queensland. She joined the tourism team in 2005 and holds a Bachelor of Business (Administration), Bachelor (Honours), and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, with her PhD focused on tourism destination development completed in 2006. Prior to her academic career, Dr Breakey worked for more than a decade in the tourism industry, holding positions in hotels, resorts, tour operations, travel agencies, and events in Australia and internationally. She also contributed to government efforts at Tourism Events Queensland by developing Destination Management Plans.

In her roles at UQ, she has been the Director for Undergraduate Programs, Coordinator of the First Year Experience, and a member of the award-winning MTHEM Foundation Year Teaching Team, earning the UQ Excellence in Teaching & Learning Award - Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Dr Breakey developed and continues to course coordinate the Masters course Disciplinary Foundations of Tourism, Hospitality & Events. Her research focuses on sustainable visitor usage of tourism destinations, including environmental ethics, sustainable tourism, ecotourism, community-based tourism, and tourism in protected areas. She has supervised six PhD scholars to completion and published numerous works on these topics and on tourism and hospitality education. Key publications include "Strengthening sustainability of the Indian Ocean territories marine parks and local economy, through collaborative world-class ecotourism" (2025), "Leopold’s cultural harvest, biocultural tourism, and field environmental philosophy" (2023), "Can we buffer them? Supporting healthy levels of stress and anxiety in first year international students" (2023), "Does tourism development shift residents’ attitudes to the environment and protected area management?" (2022), "Development of a conflict management model as a tool for improved project outcomes in community based tourism" (2019), and "Tourism and Aldo Leopold's “cultural harvest”: creating virtuous tourists as agents of sustainability" (2014). She also served on Ecotourism Australia's Policy and Advocacy Committee (2011-2014) and Board of Directors (2019-2023).

Professional Email: noreen.breakey@uq.edu.au