Marina is an internationally renowned policy, planning and sustainable development expert and Professor of Tourism and International Development at Brighton School of Business and Law, which is an Affiliate Member of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
She is a geographer with a background in economics, with significant experience of high-quality research, consultancy, PhD supervision, teaching and curriculumm development.
Since 2017, she has been playing a key strategic role as Academic Lead for the University’s Responsible Futures’ Research and Enterprise Agenda, an initiative aimed at fostering innovation through impactful interdisciplinary research and consultancy collaborations, at local, national and international level.
She has advised on numerous international cooperation and research assignments funded by International Development Organisations (IDOs) such as: The World Bank, the European Union, The UN (UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO), the Commonwealth Secretariat, National Ministries and Tourism Boards, Regional Development Agencies and NGOs. Such work has provided the basis of 2 REF2014 and REF2021 highly rated Impact Case Studies. Examples of projects undertaken are also available here.
In 2018 she was appointed as REF2021 panelist for UOA C24: Sport, Tourism and Leisure.
She is known globally for her excellence in leading and collaborating with multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and multi-cultural teams and for her commitment to generating new knowledge on ways in which tourism can play a key role in sustainable development by stimulating local economies, conserving the environment, developing peoples and changing lives.
Her research spans across 3 main areas, including:
- Innovation, responsible entrepreneurship and sustainability in tourism - i.e. British Council project on Innovationa for African Universities; circular economy, contemporary arts and community development, contemporary arts for sustainble development in Africa.
- Policy, Planning and Governance - i.e. master-planning; training needs analysis and capacity building; responsible leadership.
- Development and Impact - i.e. impacts assessments of IDOs' interventions; monitoring and evaluation; participatory research methods; and niche (tourism) product development.