Dr. Vanessa (Gaitree) Gowreesunkar is Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur . 

Vice President – International Tourism Studies Association

Executive Member – Caribbean Tourism Research Network 

A citizen of the island of Mauritius. With a PhD cutting across three disciplines (Tourism Management, Communication, and Marketing), Vanessa is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Sirmaur, India. She joined IIM after completing 4 years of service as Head of Department at the University of Africa and 2 years of associate professorship at the Anant National University in Ahmedabad. Vanessa is the Vice President of the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA) where she also assumes the role of Director for membership and marketing. She is an Associate Editor at the International Journal of Tourism Cities (IJTC) and serves as Social Media Director for ITSA and IJTC. She is also serving as Assistant Editor at Tourism Review.

With over a decade of experience in teaching, training, and research, Vanessa has brought her contributions to various international universities and educational institutions. Vanessa is an editorial board member of several scientific journals and has published in renowned journals. Vanessa is the main editor of a number of international textbooks and she has co-authored several book chapters and research articles with leading scholars.

Vanessa is also known as an international player with a passion for building connections and driving successful collaborations across borders. With an impressive global network and a track record of developing MoUs; she has fostered partnerships and facilitated cross-country collaborations to drive growth and innovation in several countries. Vanessa has also earned various awards for her contribution on research and woman empowerment in Mauritius, India, and Africa.

Vanessa played a key role in a number of community empowerment initiatives; from 2010 to 2015, she assumed the role of Vice President and from 2015 to 2017, as President, at the African Network for Policy, Research and Advocacy for Sustainability (ANPRAS), a regional Non-Governmental Organisation affiliated with the African Union. At the level of the African Union, Vanessa was the Cluster Secretary for the woman from 2015 to 2018 and she assumed the role of Deputy Chair for the Tourism, at African Union ECOSOCC from 2018 to 2021. Vanessa is also actively promoting women’s empowerment through her affiliation with the World Advocates in Tourism and Women Academics in Tourism. She serves as National Coordinator for WAELE (waele.org), an international organization based in Nigeria and which caters for the cause of widows and young girls.