Mary O'Keeffe is a Tourism / Marketing Lecturer in the Department of Marketing, Tourism & Sport at the Institute of Technology, Sligo. Prior to joining IT Sligo, Mary worked with CERT providing educational training services to the Irish tourism sector. As a Guest Lecturer at the Florida University, Valencia, Spain, she developed a new module on Experiential Tourism Marketing. Mary also supervises research dissertations at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Recent research interests include heritage tourism and social value creation, community tourism and service quality in tourism settings. Mary was involved in hosting THRIC 2017 (Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference) at IT Sligo.  She has been collaborating with fellow CUA (Connacht Ulster Alliance) partners on a PRTC proposal (Post Graduate Research Training Centre).  This proposed Centre seeks to support regional development and incorporates the major strands and strengths of heritage, tourism, and archaeology in Ireland’s stunning West & North-West.