Caroline Orchiston
Postdoctoral Fellow
Office - Commerce 4.42
Tel 64 3 479 8197
Email caroline.orchiston@otago.ac.nz
Skype: carolineorchiston
Background
Caroline completed a First Class Honours degree in Geology at Otago University (1993-1996), with the field work component of her final year involving a study of the Alpine Fault in South Westland (Mahitahi). She was inspired by her time on the West Coast, and hoped to continue working there in future. She then worked in the mining industry for five years (in mining, exploration and environmental) before deciding to return to academia, this time shifting focus towards environmental studies. Her Masters thesis (Department of Tourism, University of Otago 2002-2004) investigated environmental management in the marine tourism sector in New Zealand, drawing on her experience as a wildlife tour guide and her keen interest in environmental issues.
But the Alpine Fault was still in her mind; her interdisciplinary PhD topic looked at the potential outcomes of future large earthquakes on the tourism sector around the Southern Alps, supervised by Prof. Rick Sibson (Geology Department) and Prof. James Higham (Department of Tourism). Her PhD took a scenario-based approach using isoseismal models for a range of Alpine Fault earthquake magnitudes, and overlaying these with tourism data to paint a picture of the potential impacts on the tourism sector in the short, medium and long terms post-disaster. A second method involved a postal survey to all the tourism operators around the Southern Alps investigating perceptions, preparedness and resilience in the industry. During the first year of her PhD the Joint Centre for Disaster Research was established in Wellington by Assoc. Prof. David Johnston (a collaboration between Massey University (Wellington) and GNS Science) and David became an adviser for Caroline's thesis.
Since completing her PhD in March 2010, Caroline has worked as a Teaching Fellow (TOUR 306, TOUR 216, TOUR 219) and continued working on collaborative projects with the Joint Centre for Disaster Research. She visited Washington State, USA, in September 2010 to conduct field work on natural hazard awareness in Eastern Washington, and will be returning in October 2011 to speak to communities about their results.
Following the Christchurch earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011, opportunities arose to help the tourism recovery by working with key agencies (Tourism Industry Association, Tourism Strategy Group and Tourism New Zealand), funded by GNS Science and the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. In June 2011, Caroline began a 2-year Postdoctoral Fellowship that will focus on the Christchurch earthquakes and their outcomes on the tourism sector.
Research Interests
Caroline's research interests relate to the application of knowledge from the geosciences into the tourism space, illustrated by her on-going research on seismic risk and the perceptions and preparedness of tourism businesses, both in Canterbury and the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Recent work in Melbourne, Australia involved a content analysis of newspaper reports from the September 4th Christchurch earthquake, and interviews with travel agents about the impact of the earthquake on travel to New Zealand. This work is complimented by other natural hazard projects including the impact of flooding on businesses in Queenstown, and resident perceptions of natural hazards in Washington State.
Publications
Orchiston, C. (2011). Seismic risk scenario planning and sustainable tourism management: Christchurch and the Alpine Fault zone, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, doi:10.1080/09669582.2011.617827.
Orchiston, C (2010). Tourism and seismic risk: Perceptions, preparedness and resilience in the zone of the Alpine Fault, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Departments of Tourism and Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin.
Orchiston, C. (2010). Tourism and seismic risk, South Island, New Zealand. iTunes presentation, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Coomer, M., Johnston, D. J., Wilson, T., Becker, J., Orchiston, C., Page, S. (2009). West Coast ShakeOut exercise September 18th 2009: Observation of the exercise on the West Coast, South Island, New Zealand. GNS Science Report 2009/65, November 2009.
Orchiston, C. 2009. Natural hazard monitoring in New Zealand: implications for tourist safety. Pacific News, vol. 31.
Orchiston, C. 2006. Profiling changes in the supply side of marine tourism in New Zealand: a spatiotemporal analysis. Tourism in Marine Environments, vol. 2, p: 79-88.