Susanne Becken

Susanne Becken is a Vice Chancellor Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences and the Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management department. She is also a Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University in Australia and serves as a Principal Science Investment Advisor for tourism in the Department of Conservation, New Zealand. Her work bridges academic research, policy advising, and practical sustainability initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region.

Her research focuses on sustainable tourism, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental policy, systems thinking, and the use of AI and big data in monitoring tourism impacts. She leads projects on climate adaptation in Thailand, AI-based aesthetic monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef, and airline carbon reduction strategies.

Recent publications reveal a strong trend in analyzing climate policy, public sentiment via social media, and decarbonization technologies such as blockchain. Her work integrates interdisciplinary methods, including systems modeling, sentiment analysis, and experimental design, to address sustainability challenges in tourism.

• Fellow of the International Academy of the Study of Tourism
• Member of Air New Zealand Sustainability Advisory Panel
• Invited expert on Whitsunday Climate Change Innovation Hub
• Board member of NOW Transforming Travel Advisory Board

Susanne Becken advises PhD students such as Jinyan Chen and has led multiple research grants and collaborative projects. Her work emphasizes stakeholder engagement, policy integration, and transformative change in tourism systems. She is actively involved in developing monitoring frameworks and smart technologies for sustainable tourism management.

She leads and collaborates with research teams on coral reef monitoring, climate risk perception, and digital tools for tourism sustainability, contributing to both academic knowledge and practical policy solutions.