Five key takeaways from Discussing Tourism Auckland
ITC students Meleane Teu and Alapasita Tupou recently attended the Discussing Tourism Auckland event. Here they are pictured together, and with ITC Managing Director Kerry Priestley.
Last month, two students from the International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) won tickets to attend Discussing Tourism Auckland, an informative event hosted by Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA). Below, one of the lucky students – Meleane Teu – shares three key things she learned on the day.
It was a great opportunity to be selected to attend this event. We were lucky that our home tutor, Dr Amira, informed us about the event and asked us if we wanted to go. I applied straight away, and not long after I received an email confirming that I had won a ticket.
I learned a lot from the event. We are currently studying a number of the topics discussed in our Diploma in Tourism and Travel Management Level 5.
Here’s five things that stood out the most.
Tourism 2025 strategy
The chief executive of TIA, Chris Roberts, spoke about New Zealand’s tourism strategy for 2025. This is something we have analysed in class, so it was very interesting to hear firsthand from Mr Roberts about what has happened in the two years since the strategy launched. He spoke about how industry is growing and the challenges that New Zealand faces.
Advocacy
We did not know much about advocacy before attending this event. I now understand that advocacy in the tourism industry is about managing change, and how important it is to inform stakeholders about what communities care about.
Data
Speakers from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) talked about how they collect data, and they also showcased their new Tourism Dashboard. This was particularly interesting as we regularly research tourism data at ITC.
Video marketing
Haka Tours delivered a presentation about how effective videos are when it comes to marketing and promotion. I’m paying closer attention to tourism videos on social media now!
Minimum viable product
Lastly, we learned about minimum viable product and being a lean start-up from the previous owner of Naked Bus Company.
Overall, it was a very informative and interesting event. We got the chance to talk with officials from TIA and Immigration after the event, as well as economists from Westpac. We are very grateful to TIA and ITC for the opportunity.
Meleane Teu is currently studying towards a Level 5 Diploma in Tourism and Travel Management at ITC. Her dream job is to obtain a management-level position in the travel and tourism industry – at the moment she’s open to opportunities, as her understanding of the industry is growing every day.
Posted in In the Community, News | Tagged Auckland, TIA, Tourism 2025 |One Response to “Five key takeaways from Discussing Tourism Auckland”
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Robbie Vaughan says:
Cool and interesting article, thanks. I liked the pictures. It looked fun.
Robbie Vaughan