Dr. Smith is a landscape and urban planner with special expertise in tourism and recreation.  He has extensive professional experience in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and North America, which includes consultancy to national governments, the private sector, the World Bank and the United Nations. His professional expertise encompasses strategic and physical planning, policy development and project design and evaluation, and environmental impact assessment. 

He has served as a Board Member of the Asia Pacific Tourism Association, the International Federation of Park & Recreation Administration (Asia Pacific), the Sentosa Development Corporation, the School of Ornamental Horticulture (Singapore), Singapore Institute of Parks & Recreation and the Board of Education, RAIA (Qld) as well as many other private and public committees.

He has addressed conferences in Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the U. S. A. and Vietnam on his professional work and associated research.  He has written more than 100 papers on planning and design. 

He has lectured in the graduate and undergraduate programmes at the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore (Singapore), the University of Queensland (Australia), Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia) and Harvard University (USA). He has received the Harvard University Doctoral Award, the A. E. Brooks Traveling Scholarship, the Commonwealth University Scholarship, the CBI Award, the Queensland Board of Architects Prize and Honorable Mention in the RAIA Silver Medal Award.

Dr. Smith holds the Doctor of Design (Landscape and Urban Planning) from Harvard University and the Master of Architecture from the University of Queensland, Australia. He is a life fellow of the Singapore Institute of Planners, a fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, and a Certified Planning Professional.

• Smith, R. A. and J. Henderson (2008) Integrated Beach Resorts, Informal Tourism Commerce and the 2004 Tsunami in International Journal of Tourism Research Vol. 10, No. 3, pp 271-282. 
• Smith, R. A. (2008) Environmental Responsibility in the Spa Industry: a Business Perspective in G. Bodeker and M. Cohen (eds.) Understanding the Global Spa Industry Spa Management, pp. 307-312. Oxford, UK: Butterworth Heinemann.
• Smith, R. A. (2007) Anchoring Tourism to the Coast: Innovative Spatial and Community Strategies in M. Luck (editor) Nautical Tourism Development: Concepts and Issues, Amsterdam: Wiley, pp. 25-36.
• Smith, R. A. (2007) Spas and the Environment: the Impact of Global Warming, Asian Spa and Wellness Festival 2007, Key Note Address, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Smith, R. A. (2007) Sustainable Eco Initiatives in Tourism & Hospitality – An International Perspective, Sustainable Eco Initiatives in Tourism & Hospitality, Key Note Address, Bangalore, India.
• Smith, R. A. (2007) Emerging Trends in Marketing, Technology and Facility Planning in the Hospitality Sector, Hospitality Vision 2007, Key Note Address, Manipal, India.