Rebecca Mackenzie

CEO & President

Culinary Tourism Alliance

Rebecca loves local edibles and that her career enables her to explore Canada and the globe, connecting people across the agriculture and tourism industries to grow “tastes of place”. Passionate about the interrelation between food, agriculture, tourism, and culture, Rebecca has been instrumental in developing tourism products including the CTA’s Feast On® accreditation program and food tourism curriculum at several post-secondary institutions.

Rebecca manages highly participatory and asset-based community development projects at the local, regional, provincial, national, and international levels. She oversees all programs, partnership development, and crafts comprehensive marketing partnerships to increase awareness of Canada’s food tourism experiences including the inaugural 2019 World’s 50 Best Restaurants Explore Ontario campaign and the COVID-19 tourism recovery program - the Great Taste of Ontario.

Rebecca contributes her expertise to a variety of industry boards including the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals Working Group and the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario. She's contributed chapters to the 2nd UNWTO Global Report on Gastronomic Tourism and a chapter on Transforming the Terroir into a Tourist Destination in the Routledge Handbook of Gastronomic Tourism 2019. She is currently finalizing her Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Royal Roads University.