Dr Anna Carr

Biography

Before academia Anna was owner-operator of two adventure tourism businesses. She had several years’ experience working in various tourism businesses and NZ national parks for the Departments of Conservation and Lands and Survey. From 2008 she was co-director of the Centre for Recreation Research with Dr Brent Lovelock. Since early 2014 she has been a government Ministerial appointment to the Otago Conservation Board. Anna has been a visiting researcher at the University of Stavanger (Norway), University of Edinburgh (UK), Harstad Hogskollin (Norway), University of Alberta and University of Northern British Columbia (Canada).

Research Interest

Environmental management of tourism: This research focuses on ecotourism, ecopreneurship and sustainable SMTEs. From 1999 to 2002 Anna worked alongside Professor James Higham on a nationwide FRST funded project investigating Ecotourism in New Zealand: profiling visitors to New Zealand ecotourism operations. In 2005 Anna had an Otago Research Grant to study Māori owned nature tourism businesses. Recreation: Anna’s interests here surround wilderness recreation planning and the history of alpine and polar region recreation. From 2009-2010 she has undertaken numerous externally funded projects in this area. Anna received SPARC (SportNZ) funding for a project on ‘Family preferences, experiences and benefits associated with outdoor in Aotearoa’ (Project Leader: Anna Thompson) and was co investigator on two other projects ‘Immigrants and the Outdoors’ (Project Leader: Brent Lovelock) and ‘Enduring Participation in Outdoor Recreation’ (Project Leader: Brent Lovelock). Other notable research included visitor studies commissioned by the Department of Conservation in the Hakatere, Ahuriri and Ruataniwha Conservation Parks. Cultural landscapes and cultural tourism development: Anna’s PhD (1998-2004) examined the management of visitors’ experiences of cultural landscapes in New Zealand. As a result she was an invited director of Te Ana Whakairo (Māori Rock Art Centre Trust) from 2007-2011. She continues to study how cultural identity influences tourism development and land management through cultural values for landscapes, visitor demand for cultural tourism, cultural tourism entrepreneurship and cross cultural visitor interpretation. Recently she collaborated on a book chapter exploring cultural dissonance and indigenous peoples with Canadian researchers. In 2012-2013 she was awarded an Otago Research Grant as Principal investigator with Diane Ruwhiu (Management). The ORG will explore Māori business networks.