International Travel College

Stay up to date

Check out the ITC Blog
Follow us on:

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 127 other subscribers

Like ITC on Facebook

5 quick questions with ITC tutor Amy McPhail

Posted on 06/10/2015 by
ITC tutor Amy McPhail used to be a flight attendant for Virgin Australia. She has plenty of great advice about this exciting career choice.

ITC tutor Amy McPhail used to be a flight attendant for Virgin Australia – it’s no surprise that flight attending is her favourite subject to teach!

Amy McPhail is a tutor at The International Travel College of New Zealand’s City Campus. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the classroom. We asked her five quick questions about her passion for aviation, travel and tourism.

1. What sparked your interest in travel and tourism?

When I left high school I had no idea what I wanted to do for a job, let alone a career. One day I was at home flicking through a newspaper and I came across an advertisement for a travel course. As soon as I saw the picture of the Flight Attendant, I knew that was what I wanted to do. A week later I was enrolled and starting my journey towards a fabulous career in travel and tourism. Completing my Certificate in Travel and Tourism gave me a great foundation to launch my career and introduced me to the wide variety of work available in this exciting industry. I have since worked in a variety of roles in the tourism industry, including working for Hilton Hotels, as a flight attendant for Virgin Australia, for a travel wholesaler and as a travel agent.

2. Do you have a favourite place you’ve visited?

Innsbruck, Austria

Innsbruck, Austria

A quaint city in Austria called Innsbruck. It is a beautiful alpine destination, with gorgeous historical buildings, breathtaking scenery surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Best time of the year to visit – December for the Christmas markets and street decorations.

3. What is the best thing about working in the travel and tourism industry?

My favourite part of working in the travel and tourism industry is of course the travel!! I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to see some amazing destinations through my work in travel, including Fiji, Thailand, the United States of America, South Africa, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Working in travel can be extremely rewarding and fun. If you work hard and want to succeed the world is truly your oyster!

4. What are your favourite subjects to teach?

Flight Attending! It’s such a great subject and is always lots of fun to teach as it involves so many practical opportunities for the students to role play and really experience a day in the life of a flight attendant.

5. How can a student improve their chances of getting a great job when they graduate?

Having customer service experience is invaluable when applying for work in the travel and tourism industry. Any part-time work that involves customer service that a student can get while studying will put them ahead of all the other applicants who do not have this previous experience. I gained mine while working as a waitress 2 days a week while completing my qualification.

Posted in Staff News | Tagged , , , |

2 Responses to “5 quick questions with ITC tutor Amy McPhail”

  1. SMSala says:

    nice info

Leave a Reply