Dr Victoria Richards

Overview

I am originally from Torquay in the English Riviera and grew up surrounded by the sea and countryside. Moving to South Wales to study introduced me to a new environment where I have embraced the culture (over 30 years here) – including learning the Welsh language and of course supporting Welsh rugby. I’ve had a varied career including working in the tourism industry – in hotels, cafes, bars and visitor attractions, and later in the third sector as a volunteer, then in training development and social care. My particular experience has been working with and for people with vision impairments in areas such as personal rehabilitation training, conference organisation, student mentoring and awareness raising training schemes and design. Following this period of about 15 years, I undertook a PhD which explored issues around social justice and inclusion of vision impaired people in tourism, focusing on their in-depth experiences and the meaning of tourism in people’s lives. I have now been with Cardiff Met as a senior lecturer for the past seven years with teaching, supervision, research and pastoral responsibilities. I have experience of managing the tourism programme as a previous programme director and now have pastoral roles as year one tutor and personal tutor. Last year I was the proud recipient of the Victor Middleton Prize (Association of Tourism in Higher Education) for teaching and student engagement. In my spare time I play the clarinet and as an ex women’s rugby player I enjoy supporting Welsh rugby.

Research Publications

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