Around the World in 80 Gardens

Event Information

When

Thursday, October 17
5:45 pm to 6:45 pm
iCal / Google Calendar

Beginning in the lush gardens of the pacific, through South America and Europe to South East Asia and Australia, Dr. Benfield will take you on a tour of the gardens and floral kingdoms of the world.

Discover the three acres of gardens in Singapore airport, the arid gardens of Australia and the tropical gardens of the Seychelles and the Canary Islands, beautiful English country gardens, and unique gardens in the United States and Canada.

Sponsored by the Kensington Garden Club.

About the Presenter

Dr Richard W. Benfield is Emeritus Professor of Geography at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut where he teaches courses in Human Geography, Plants, Predators and Parks, Russia, The European Union and many of the courses in the department’s tourism track. Prior to coming to Central he was Senior Program Coordinator in the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Oklahoma where he instructed citizens of the new Russian Federation on privatization and the transition to a market economy. He obtained his doctorate in geography from the University of Oklahoma in 1998.

Prior to commencing his teaching career at the University of Oklahoma, he was Vice-President of Marketing at Whistler Ski resort, Canada, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Executive Director of the Banff-Lake Louise Chamber of Commerce and a tourism marketing executive with the Government of Alberta.

His current research interests are in biogeography, particularly garden tourism, and the use of tourism as a conservation tool through the great botanic gardens of the world. He has also published extensively and spoken widely on the geography of Floriculture. In total he has travelled in over 115 countries and seen the botanic gardens and other private gardens in just about them all. In 2010 he traveled to the parks and gardens of South Africa, the Middle East, China and the Valley of Flowers, India where he researched the intersection of garden tourism and conservation. In the summer of 2015 he traveled to Siberia and Mongolia to undertake Snow Leopard research. He has just finished a project on developing a garden tourism route in Southern California and another in the US North East. He is a much sought after speaker for local garden and nature clubs and Botanic Garden Conservation International, for whom he presented their plenary address at their education conference in Mexico City and subsequently in 2013 he spoke at a number of New Zealand venues prior to addressing the World Botanic Garden conference in Dunedin, New Zealand. In the summer of 2014, he travelled to South Korea to view Korean Festival Gardens, conservation of plants in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and from there he travelled to Australia to speak in five major cities on garden tourism, partnerships and tourism development.

Around the World in 80 gardens is the culmination of his career in tourism to the world’s great gardens. In this session, beginning in the lush gardens of the pacific, through South America and Europe to South East Asia and Australia he will show garden enthusiasts and laymen alike the different and unique gardens and floral kingdoms of the world. He will take attendees through the three acres of gardens in Singapore airport, the arid gardens of Australia and the tropical gardens of the Seychelles (home of the love nut!) and the Canary Islands and culminating in the beautiful English country gardens of his home country, finishing with the unique and different gardens in the United States and Canada … in total 80 gardens in seven continents.

In 2013 his best-selling book Garden Tourism was published by CABI Press, Abingdon, England and in 2020 a second edition, New Directions in Garden Tourism, will also be published by CABI. He is currently working on the nexus of Plants predators and National Parks around the world.

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