Dr. Vikneswaran Nair is currently the Programme Leader for the Responsible Rural Tourism Network at Taylor’s University in Malaysia and an Associate Professor at the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts. In addition to that he is also the Associate Director of Taylor’s Centre for Research & Innovation in Tourism (CRiT) that focuses on research in hospitality, tourism and gastronomy. He has more than 16 years’ experience in the field of sustainable tourism, rural tourism and environmental management. A seasoned and award winning researcher and consultant with extensive publications he was honoured as the Outstanding Young Malaysian of the Year Award in 2006 and 2009. In 2007, he was elected as the President of the Asia-Pacific Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Educational Institution (CHRIE) Federation and served as the Secretary of the Tourism Educators Association of Malaysia for 8 years. He is also currently the Vice President of the Malaysian Ecotourism Association. His latest accolade is when he was awarded a RM9million (US$3million) national research grant from the Ministry of Higher Education’s Long Term Research Grant Scheme for the project, “Multidimensional Responsible Rural Tourism Capacity Framework for Sustainable Tourism”.
