Contributors

Abstract

Gayle Mayes is currently a Lecturer and early career researcher with the Regional Sustainability Research Group at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. She holds a Diploma of Teaching from Brisbane College of Advanced Education, a Graduate Diploma in Outdoor Education and a Masters in Education Research from the Queensland University of Technology. Her PhD researched the impacts of interpretation in marine wildlife tourism experiences, and was completed at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Gayle spent 15 years in the tertiary education sector specializing in marine education, recreation, conservation and adventure pursuits. Her additional eight years in private enterprise provided an excellent foundation for her role as Internships and Regional Engagement coordinator for the Faculty of Business, where she works with micro to small-sized coastal tourism businesses in the Sunshine Coast region. Gayle has also worked in a variety of other special interest tourism-based businesses as manager, owner or consultant in the interrelated fields of health, sport, leisure, recreation and lifestyle. Her research interests and current projects include small scale sustainable tourism development in the Pacific islands; coastal tourism and global warming; marine wildlife tourism; SCUBA diving and artificial reef tourism; ocean and extreme marine sports, leisure, and tourism.