Dr. Jess Ponting

Sustainable Tourism Management

B.Sc. (Resource & Environmental Management), 1995, Australian National University

M.M. (Tourism Management), 2002, University of Technology, Sydney

Ph.D. (Leisure & Tourism), 2008, University of Technology, Sydney

Dr. Ponting comes to SDSU via teaching posts at the University of Technology, Sydney in Australia and the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. He has broad experience in international sustainable tourism consulting, having worked on a variety of projects in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the United States. Dr Ponting’s key research interest is in sustainable surf tourism, he has published extensively in this field including the surf media in magazines covering four continents, consulted across the south pacific for sustainable surf tourism operators, authored Fiji’s surf tourism development policy, and recently completed the world’s first PhD on sustainable tourism. More broadly his research interests lie in ensuring that tourism is a force for positive change in destination communities.

Dr. Ponting’s teaching philosophy is to bring theory to life through sharing his professional and research experiences in the field with students, and setting assignments which mirror real-life projects. He also aims to introduce an expanding array of field trips into his classes and to facilitate exciting international internship opportunities in the field of sustainable tourism for motivated students.

Dr. Ponting has published his research in a range of top scholarly journals, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to the study of tourism of including the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, the Journal of Ecotourism, Tourism Analysis, Society & Leisure, and The Humanistic Pyschologist. He has written chapters for the second edition of Wearing & Neil’s best selling book “Ecotourism: Impacts, Potential and Possibilities” and the prestigious Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies. His research papers have been presented to conferences in Australia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, China, South Korea and the United States. His PhD dissertation is in print with German publishing house VDM Verlag and he has a standing contract with Routledge’s Psychology Press for a book exploring social psychology and theories of consumer culture in the context of tourism.