Kelly Bricker

Dr. Kelly Bricker is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Utah in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. She also works part-time as a Senior Research Scientist – Recreation with HDR|DTA located in Sacramento, California. With her husband Nathan, she developed an ecotourism whitewater and sea kayaking operation called Rivers Fiji.

Bricker is currently the Chair of the executive board of The International Ecotourism Society, and serves as Chair of the Interim Advisory Committee of the Tourism Sustainability Council.

Bricker was previously an Assistant Professor in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources at West Virginia University, has a B.S. and M.S. in Outdoor Recreation and Administration from Western Illinois University. She also taught in the Tourism Studies program at the University of the South Pacific and served as President of the Fiji Ecotourism Association for three terms. She completed her Ph.D. research with The Pennsylvania State University where she specialized in Sustainable Tourism and Natural Resource Management within the program of Leisure Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Management.

She has special research and teaching interest in ecotourism, sense of place, natural resource management, and the environmental and social impacts of tourism. She has conducted research on heritage tourism, social impacts of tourism, and natural resource tourism environments. She has presented papers on issues in heritage tourism, sense of place and natural resource management, and incentive travel programs, and ecotourism management. She has published articles on sense of place and whitewater recreationists, heritage tourism, perceptions of incentive travelers, ecotourism, certification and policy in tourism, sustainable tourism, and health and tourism issues.