Carolyn Childs

Tourism Director

Carolyn has been working in tourism, travel and aviation for more than 35 years, following a brief stint in industrial and technical market research. Her projects have covered nearly 40 countries on every inhabited continent.

She has worked for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and ran the Travel Research Centre and headed the Travel and Leisure Division of TNS (now Kantar) and running her own consultancies.

In 2025, Carolyn joined SHP to create a new tourism division, building on a partnership of more than a decade in collaborating with SHP through her previous strategy and research consultancy MyTravelResearch.com. The new division is built on the recognition that the visitor economy is a vital element in placemaking, culture and heritage. Carolyn’s portfolio covers strategy and planning and research across all aspects of tourism and place-making. She is also a respected futurist speaking at many public and private events on planning for the future such as SXSW Sydney and Mumbrella Travel.

Carolyn is an active member of the tourism community, especially in cultural tourism, holding roles with Australian Regional Tourism, the World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage, the Australian Opal Centre and the Travel and Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter. Under her Presidency, the Chapter won the Associations Chapter of the Year award in 2016, the only chapter to do so on its first submission. In 2020, she won TTRA APAC’s Sue Beeton award for services to promoting tourism research in the Asia Pacific region. She is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society (UK) and has been a member of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts.

On any Saturday

On any given Saturday, Carolyn will be out on Sydney Harbour for the sunrise, rowing in a quad or an eight, and having lunch with her partner Andy (and protecting the cheese from SHP Tourism Catmin Assistant Vronsky).

Qualifications

B.A. (Hons, Russian and Politics) 1985

Professional positions

President, Travel and Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter (2014 – 2016)

Public Office, Travel and Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter (2021 – current)

Board Member, Travel and Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter (2012 – 2021)

Advisory Panel Member, World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage (2019 – current)

Regional Tourism Ambassador, Australian Regional Tourism (2019 – current)

Board Member, Australian Regional Tourism (2021 – current)

Board Member, Australian Opal Centre (2022 – current)

Advisory Panel Member, Belgenny Farm (2022)

Pet Patrol

Vronsky

Meet Vronsky the Catmin Assistant to the SHP Tourism Team demonstrating the beauty of the wheeled suitcase. A frustrated explorer, Vronsky is increasingly focused on food tourism with key destinations being the cat bowl in the kitchen or discovering human food to steal.