Chris Bottrill named Vice Chairperson at Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
Dr. Chris Bottrill is the Dean of the Faculty of Global and Community Studies at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in tourism network and destination development. Chris oversees programming and development in tourism and hospitality fields in a complex portfolio that includes five academic schools, international projects, and aboriginal education programming. He has taught a wide array of tourism topics including destination development, sustainability, marketing, and entrepreneurship at universities in Canada, New Zealand, the USA, and Austria. Chris has extensive applied industry experience having completed over 50 tourism management and development projects around the globe. These have included new product feasibility analyses, marketing strategies, resource assessments, and multiple stakeholder engagement processes. He has also presented on tourism related topics ranging from Olympic preparedness to community tourism development at conferences and forums in China, Canada, Russia, Finland, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Cambodia. Chris’s first experience with PATA was as a conference volunteer in Vancouver in 1995. He joined PATA in 2011 and has participated in a wide array of roles. He has served as the Chair of the Human Capital Development (HCD) Committee and Vice Chair of the Sustainability and Social Responsibility Committee since 2014, and he has also been a Trustee with the PATA Foundation for the past three years. During his tenure as committee Chair and Vice Chair Chris initiated a revision of both committee terms of reference, rebuilt committee membership, and led the formation of action plans which have seen many initiatives begin and come to fruition. In his role as HCD Chair he also facilitated highly successful Youth Symposiums in Phnom Penh, Chengdu, and Bangalore and Guam. Since joining the Executive Board, Chris has been leading governance revisions to align strategic efforts of the organisation and engage a broader base of membership.
