Paul Rogers, NSW, Australia

Founder of Planet Happiness

He understands the needs of destinations in terms of building back better; shares information about our product offering; builds synergies with destinations and other partners to support Covid-19 resilience & recovery.

Paul has 20 years of experience as a senior tourism advisor to national and local tourism organizations and has worked in more than a dozen countries in South and South-East Asia, Africa, and Australia. His focus has been on the policy and planning arena – on using tourism as a vehicle for development.

Paul is a proven networker and team player with a solid international reputation for producing state-of-the-art multi-disciplined strategies and plans that are centered around tourism and: income and employment generation; poverty reduction; protected area management (ecotourism); and, heritage management.

Work in Bhutan is central to Paul’s interest in the happiness, wellbeing, and “beyond GDP” agenda – which provide the foundation for Planet Happiness, a global, grass-roots tourism & well-being project focused upon UNESCO World Heritage sites he co-founded in Aug 2018.

In recent years Paul has undertaken assignments for the World Bank, ADB, FAO, DfID, UNDP, UNWTO, USAID ICIMOD, Luxembourg Development, Kew Gardens, Istituto Oikos, SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) and WWF.