Laura Lesar is Associate Professor at Flinders University. She holds a PhD in Sustainable Tourism (Griffith University), a Master's of Science in Travel Industry Management (University of Hawai'i), and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons, thesis) in Environmental Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz).

A fusion of her multidisciplinary background, Laura’s expertise is in the practical quality control tools (“tools”) that enable tourism providers to build their sustainability and resilience, such as certification programs, sustainability indicators, net zero initiatives, adaptation strategies, capacity building training tools, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. 

Laura embraces opportunities for industry engagement. She has worked on sustainability and tourism projects globally in the USA, Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America for public, private, and non-profit organisations, including Royal Caribbean Intl., Expedia, Gemtree Wines, City and County of Honolulu, Experience Gold Coast, Chilean Government’s Environmental Commission, Etheridge Shire Council, Hostelling Intl., and Murweh Shire Council.

Laura is dedicated to expanding her expertise in industry- and community- engaged research (AU$9.8 million). Recently, she worked with the City and County of Honolulu in Hawai’i, USA on a solutions-oriented project assessing tourism impacts on the community, social carrying capacity indicators, and the utility of innovative technology (aerial drones) for impact monitoring to guide sustainable destination management. In collaboration with Griffith Institute for Tourism, Laura also partnered with Experience Gold Coast to co-design, pilot, and performance optimize a sustainability and resilience building toolkit for events. Laura's industry engaged research has produced practical outcomes for industry, including 100+ tools that tourism businesses can use to build their sustainability and resilience, a framework for tool selection, industry-relevant toolkits for addressing place-based and specific-specific sustainability issues, Sustainability Guidelines for Events, and a replicable method for co-creating customized sustainable tourism toolkits with industry.

Also dedicated to research excellence, Laura’s peer-reviewed research on quality control tools is published in internationally leading tourism journals of the highest ranking (A* ABDC, Top 5% SJR), including Journal of Travel Research (highest ranking of A* in ABDC) and Journal of Sustainable Tourism (A*). In 2023, she received the Early Career Researcher Excellence Award at Flinders. In recognition of her outstanding achievements in industry engaged research, Laura received the Outstanding Achievement in Industry Engagement and Impact Award - granted to one academic within the multi-disciplinary College of Business, Government, and Law. Internationally, Laura serves as an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Travel Research (A*), and received the journal’s inaugural Best Reviewer Award (Early Career Reviewer) in 2023.

Laura also holds industry and professional accreditations. Laura is an accredited sustainable tourism certification program auditor and consultant. Sparking her passion for the wine industry, Laura has also held entry-level to managerial positions in the wine and spirits industry, and has undertaken intensive food, wine, and spirit courses, and sommelier training. Laura also holds Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 accreditation for wine professionals, regarded as the international standard in wine and spirit knowledge. 

Laura has facilitated numerous invited presentations, workshops, and keynotes in the USA and Australia. Among them, she was an invited Speaker for the U.S. Department of State’s East-West Professional Fellows Program, Sustainable Tourism Speaker and Panelist for the World Tourism Summit in Hawai’i, USA, and the Keynote Speaker at the International Conference on Tourism and Entrepreneurship. Most recently, she was an invited Speaker on the Tools for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and social impact at the United Nations Environmental Program / UN Climate Technology Centre and Network’s Pacific and Asia NDE Forum and Capacity Building Workshops on “AI4ClimateAction”.

Sustainable tourism and the practical tools that translate sustainability into business practice (i.e., quality control tools).

Sustainability and resilience in tourism and wine business