About the HDC Team

Each member of the HDC tourism consulting team is a highly regarded international expert within their chosen field and benefits from a broad spectrum of knowledge, experience and skills gained in the international commercial and public sector tourism arena.

Crispian Emberson

Managing Director
Originally from a hotel management background, Cris moved into destination management when he took on a project in 1993 following the Braer Oil Tanker Disaster in Scotland. Since then he has worked for a variety of destinations including Shetland, Salisbury and Stonehenge, Lincolnshire and Norfolk and been a Director of both the East of England Tourist Board and the Southern Tourist Board. Cris has undertaken strategic, marketing and development projects for a wide variety of clients in the UK, the US, South and Central America, Africa, Europe, Canada and the Caribbean. In addition to running HDC Cris until recently was a Director of the Tourism Management Institute & Chairman of the DPUK Counties Group. Cris is a long-standing member of the Hotel, Catering and International Management Association, the Tourism Society, the Tourism Management Institute, the Association for Heritage Interpretation, Interpretation Canada and the National Association for Interpretation.

Professor John Veverka

Heritage Interpretation
Internationally renowned author of “Interpretive Master Planning”, Professor John Veverka is with out doubt the worlds leading heritage interpretation expert. John received both his BS and MS degrees majoring in Interpretive Services from Ohio State University where he also taught Interpretive Master Planning. John went on to spend 5 years in the PhD program at Michigan State University majoring in Interpretive Services and teaching Introductory and Advanced Interpretation Courses. He was an instructor at Lansing Community College teaching courses in Business Communications and Speech and he also minored in recreational marketing, consumer behavior and psychology of the audience and motivational psychology. John has also taught at the Heritage Tourism Institute at the New York State University and the Tourism Institute Faculty at the West Georgia State University where he has lectured on a variety of heritage interpretation and tourism courses aimed at working tourism professionals.

Dr David Wood

Hospitality & Training
David’s experience spans both the operation and learning within the Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism industries. Having worked for 3 of the UK’s major brewers in developing catering concepts and brands (Beefeater, County Hotels and Harvester) giving him a good practical knowledge of business development and start-ups. David has also been CEO of a Swiss based hotel, sport and leisure group and operations manager of a premium UK restaurant chain. Over the last 15 years, David has consolidated this knowledge into working in People Development. He has been CEO for 2 Global professional bodies for the hospitality industry. He now works as a visiting professor to Universities in China, Switzerland, USA and Spain as well as teaching in the UK. David’s Tourism and Hospitality Consulting work has been carried out in many countries around the world. David holds a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA), an MBA, is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality (FIH) and the British Institute of Inn keeping (FBII) is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Chartered MCIPD) and is SFEDI qualified by the CBI to give business advice to SME’s in the UK. David published a book on Management and Leadership in 2006.

Jason Borthwick

Sustainable Tourism
Jason has spent the last 12 years acquiring a range of skills and using his imagination and vision to drive forward a varied selection of projects. From building backpackers hostels and running HIV/AIDS campaigns in Africa to internal communications at Virgin Direct and diversification projects with the family business in north Norfolk. Now he’s an independent consultant, trading as Earthly Ideas, giving diversification, environmental and marketing advice. During these projects Jason has become an excellent project designer and implementer and realised his potential as a marketeer. The last projects have been environmentally friendly, a passion that has continually developed and continues to drive the direction of Jason’s career. His knowledge, drive and imagination are now available to other businesses on a consultancy basis.”

Dr Cathy Guthrie PhD FTMI FTS

Tourism Research
Cathy’s previous and current consultancy projects include tourism training needs analyses within Catalonia, Italy, Malta and Turkey (2008) and the UK, Estonia and Iceland (2006), tourism business audit and options appraisal in the North East of England (2008), a business development options appraisal for a country estate in Scotland (2004), and a Tourist Information Centre network audit and development strategy for Northumbria Tourist Board (2003). She has recently completed and been awarded a PhD, based on her research into visitor experience and its impact on destination image. In 2005, she achieved a Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods. Her MSc research focussed on the impact of information and communications technology on the marketing role of Tourist Information Centres, in the course of which she carried out an audit of tourism accommodation businesses in Fife and Angus and Dundee Tourist Board areas. Cathy has fourteen years experience of working in tourism destination management between 1987 – 2002, first at Hambleton District Council and, from 1995, as Tourism Manager at Darlington Borough Council where her achievements included developing and implementing the Darlington Tourism Strategy, the expansion of Darlington’s Heritage Open Days participation, initiating the Darlington Orange Festival, as well as working on numerous Tees Valley wide projects. She is a former secretary of the Captain Cook Tourism Association. Cathy is Hon. Secretary and a past President of the Tourism Management Institute (TMI), and is currently leading the development of TMI’s continuing professional development programme. She has published several articles, a book chapter and conference papers on tourism matters.

Beatriz Román Alzérreca

Tourism Development
Beatriz is an independent tourism consultant with eight years of experience working in Europe and Latin America. In Chile, as a partner for the DTS Consultores Company, she has participated in the planning stages, economic and social evaluation, management and design of rural tourism projects for different government institutions all along the country. In Spain she become part of distinguished environmental organizations such as NEXOS and ECODES Foundation from which she is currently working as an associated researcher promoting good environmental practices and corporate social responsibility in the tourist sector. In México, she has been working as an independent consultant in the elaboration of ecotourism projects, tourism interpretation and destination management both in indigenous communities of the state of Oaxaca and Chiapas and in nationwide projects for the Environment Ministry of Mexico.

Master in Economic Development (Carlos III University, Spain), Master in Economics (Zaragoza University, Spain) and BA in Administration and Engineering in Tourist management (Metropolitan Technical University, Chile). She has more than 10 publications related to tourism competitiveness, small enterprise, ecotourism and corporate social responsibility.

Steve Tomlinson

Illustrator & Graphic Designer
After spending 4 years as a technician in the exhibition and design office of the British Museum Steve spent a year in Norway designing exhibitions for the oil industry.

Since then, Steve has worked in a wide range of interpretive media, including – illustration, leaflet and panel design, exhibition and display design, written exhibition content, a biography of Violette Szabo, outdoor panels and painting murals, copies of works and portraiture.

Steve has also worked as an Interpretation Consultant for the Countryside Agency Local Heritage Initiative.

Previous clients have included National Parks, Museums, heritage organisations including English Heritage and the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB, Councils and Groundwork Trusts.