Catherine Evans is an entrepreneur, tourism and hospitality professional, and teacher. For 30 years, she has owned and operated a provincially licensed ecotourism and soft-adventure business, Tours of Exploration, which enriches lives through nature and cultural travel by linking conscientious travelers to like-minded suppliers on all seven continents. Through this entrepreneurship, Evans has gained extensive experience developing domestic and global relationships with regional destination-marketing organizations and receptive operators, tourism service providers, global tourism providers, and local and national government representatives. Her personal journeys have taken her to five continents in roles ranging from tour escort, conference presenter and delegate, family holidaymaker and independent explorer.
Experience
Evans teaches in various degree, diploma and certificate programs, and has led multi-day student-learning excursions in British Columbia, Mexico and China. She has designed curricula for strategic resort management, tourism product development and ecoliteracy. Evans spent four terms at Jinhua Polytechnic in China from 2012 to 2018 as faculty in the International Hotel Management program assisting with instruction, faculty mentorship and program development. Before coming to Royal Roads, she instructed at Capilano University for 10 years. She has consulted in Costa Rica, Guyana, Colombia, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Honduras, and Greenland as well as British Columbia. Her consulting work has included developing plans to establish a Sunshine Coast destination-marketing organization, creating an arts retreat, contributing to whale research and working with the World Wildlife Fund.
Education
2012
Master of Arts in Tourism Management
Royal Roads University
2010
Provincial Instructor Diploma
Vancouver Community College
1984
Honours Bachelor of Science in Zoology
University of Toronto
Awards
2012
Beadle Family Award
For excellence and innovation in tourism
Publications
Evans’s graduate paper: Biologically Respectful Tourism: Examining environmental campaigns of the Sunshine Coast, BC.