Miles Phillips

Phillips, Miles

Position Type:
Faculty
Job Title:
Associate Professor (Practice) and Extension Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Program Director
Department:
Forest Ecosystems & Society
Research Interests
  • Marketing
  • Training and Certification of professional tour/outdoor recreation guides
  • Optimization of return on investment and positive visitor impact through professionally guided experiences
  • For profit wildlife conservation through tourism
  • Wildlife based recreation and tourism
  • Agritourism
  • Triple bottom line approaches to community well being through sustainable tourism (economic/ecological/social)
Bio
Tourism Program Description: The Oregon Sea Grant program for Sustainable Coastal Tourism & Outdoor Recreation provides applied research for communities and businesses, direct business training, and advising/consultations with community organizations, businesses, and individuals. Generally, these services are free or low cost. We work with Convention and Visitor Bureaus, Hotels, Tour Operators, Fishing Guides, Conservation Organizations, Agencies, non-profits etc.

He also works with national and international projects for sustainable tourism and community development through nature-based tourism. His works integrates elements of the tourism, agriculture, forestry, natural resources, adventure, and outdoor recreation industries to create a cohesive, sustainable tourism program.

Miles Phillips came to Oregon Sea Grant from Texas A&M University Extension, where he was the Associate Department Head for Extension in the Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences Department. He led a team of Extension faculty working to serve all 254 counties in Texas. Before Texas, he was with Sea Grant in Coastal South Carolina, and before that worked as a consulting environmental engineer.

He has developed and provided professional training and educational programs in support of tourism and outdoor recreation for decades. He specializes in working with rural and coastal communities, destination management organizations, visitor bureaus, private landowners and partnerships with public land agencies. This includes work for rural agricultural landowners, rural communities, cities and outdoor skills for the public. Some examples of enterprises encompass such diverse activities as group tour operators, farm and ranch based visitor businesses (agritourism) hunting, fishing, visiting pumpkin patches, photography, stargazing, and kayaking, birding etc.