Biography

Lecturer and Course Convenor, Advertising and Marketing Communications, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra

PhD in Communication candidate, Centre for Tourism, University of Canberra

Topic: Celebrating Barcelona – one city, many journeys; creatively marketing tourism through travel novels for young readers

Sally Webster is an author and marketing communications professional who has worked in the arts, politics, industry, education, and tourism areas.  She has specialised in political and Government communications, including political campaigning, developing whole-of-Government communications, Indigenous communications, corporate communications, and corporate brand identity.

Throughout her career, Sally has focussed on international and cultural relations progressing bilateral and multilateral cooperation and capacity building projects between Australia and Asia-Pacific countries, especially with Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India.  Her work in this area led to her posting as an Australian Diplomat at the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam (2002-2004).

Sally began her career as a journalist in Melbourne working for The Age daily newspaper group and current affairs radio station 3AW.  She has completed a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University; the RSA / Cambridge University Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults; a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Social Sciences from La Trobe University; and was invited to study creative writing for two years with the Patrick White award-winning author, Gerald Murnane, at Deakin University.  

She has lectured in English, ESL, marketing communications, cultural studies, event management, journalism, public affairs, advertising, branding, and political communications at a range of educational institutions both in Australia and overseas.  She has also advised Australian Education International on ways to market its services internationally, as well as enhance Australia’s educational tourism.  

Sally has managed her own marketing communications / events consultancy and her clients included Melbourne City Marketing, Melbourne Major Events, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, The Three Tenors, Elton John, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and major sporting and entertainment events in Melbourne.

Throughout the past 10 years, Sally has managed a number of high profile national and international marketing communications campaigns for the Australian Government, and has been recognised for her professional achievements by winning a number of awards.  These have included the Australia Day Achievement Award in 2008 for her communication and publication work at the Attorney-General’s Department; the Australian Marketing Institute’s National Public Sector Award for Marketing Excellence in the Leadership category in 2000 for her team’s work on developing a national brand and comprehensive public awareness strategy for the House of Representatives; the Secretary’s Excellence Award for the 1999 /2000 New Apprenticeships campaign; and the IBM Small Business Award.

As Course Convenor and Lecturer in the Marketing Communications discipline, Sally’s teaching expertise is in the areas of Government communications, branding, integrated marketing communications, public affairs, advertising, client relationship management, consumer behaviour, corporate communications, public relations, publications, and media management.

Sally’s current PhD research studies at the University of Canberra, Celebrating Barcelona – one city, many journeys; creatively marketing tourism through travel novels for young readers, was inspired through the educational tourism research that she has undertaken during the past 10 years within Australia, Asia and Hispanic markets, particularly Spain and South America.  

As part of her research thesis, Sally is writing a younger reader travel novel (8-14 year olds) and a young adult travel novel (14-18 year olds) that both promote the culture, history and attractions in Barcelona.  Her PhD research details a concept that she has developed that uses travel novels as a new promotional tool for marketing tourism, as well supports cultural education.  The concept of the travel novel for young readers has been designed so it can easily be adapted for a range of cities and travel locations.

In 2009, Sally was awarded the prestigious Spanish Cultural Cooperation Program grant jointly provided by the Spanish Government Ministry of Culture and the Australian National University National Europe Centre for her PhD dissertation research.

Her research strengths focus on the areas of young adult writing (especially focusing on culture, identity and destination), creative tourism marketing, Spanish regional tourism, cultural tourism, cultural education, educational tourism, literary tourism, tourism writing, tourism marketing (especially to youth / young people), civic branding, tourism education, and the influence of young people as the current and future tourists.


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