Rebecca loves Ontario and local edibles. She is lucky in her role as Executive Director for OCTA because it lets her explore this vast province connecting people across agriculture and tourism industries.
Rebecca is passionate about the interrelation between food, agriculture, tourism, arts and culture. In her culinary tourism development career, Rebecca has been instrumental in developing tourism products including Prince Edward County’s award winning Taste Trail and OCTA’s Feast ON program to name a few. Rebecca’s work now take her to destinations around the world to teach about developing local economies through “taste of place”.
Rebecca developed courses for George Brown College’s cutting edge Culinary Tourism Management program. She contributes her expertise to a variety of industry Boards including the CTC Brand Experience Advisory Committee, the Terroir Hospitality Symposium, and the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation to name a few.
Born and raised in Toronto, Rebecca spent her summers in Prince Edward County. In her grade 12 year of high school, Rebecca sailed on a 156-foot tall ship to 20 countries on two continents– an experience that rooted her passion for travel and adventure! She still splits her time between Toronto and PEC. Sharing in her adventures are her two sons – Jack and Liam, and her partner, Andrew Mackenzie.
Rebecca delivered a talk at IWINETC 2015 titled: