Rate My Professor Sarah Nicholls

Sarah Nicholls is a Professor and Head of the Department of Marketing & Tourism in Swansea University’s School of Management. She holds a Chair in Placemaking and Destination Management and previously served as Director of the Centre for Visitor Economy Research from 2018 to 2023. Before joining Swansea University in April 2018, she was on the faculty at Michigan State University for 16 years, holding positions in the Departments of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Resources, Community Sustainability, and Geography. Her academic qualifications include a BSc in Geography from University College London, as well as MS and PhD degrees in Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences from Texas A&M University.

Sarah’s research specializes in the planning, development, and management of leisure resources and tourism destinations, with a focus on understanding and promoting tourism, recreation, and parks’ roles in fostering active, vibrant, resilient, and sustainable communities. Her interests encompass the implications of environmental and climate change for parks, recreation, tourism resources, and recreation/travel behaviour. Funding for her work has come from entities such as the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Isle of Anglesey County Council, Travel Michigan, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Agriculture, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Notable awards include the Outstanding Achievement in Michigan Tourism Award presented by Governor Rick Snyder in 2013, Best Paper Award at the 23rd Asia Pacific Tourism Association Annual Conference in 2017, and the Leadership for the Future Award from the National Recreation and Park Association’s Society of Park and Recreation Educators in 2002. Key publications feature “Climate change greatly escalates forest disturbance risks to US property values” in Environmental Research Letters (2023, with W. Anderegg et al.), “British tourists’ adjustment to cultural expectations in Muslim-majority countries” in Tourism Management (2022, with B. Garrod), “WALES 2021 Active Healthy Kids (AHK) Report Card” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022), and “Embedding Sustainability into the Tourism Planning Process: Evidence from Michigan” in the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning (2021). Sarah has acted as Programme Director for the BSc and MSc in International Tourism Management and welcomes PhD students in parks, recreation, and tourism planning, development, and management.