Introducing Kristeen Yelavich, ITC’s new Whangarei Tutor!
Kristeen Yelavich is ITC’s new Whangarei Tutor!
Kristeen Yelavich is our new tutor at ITC’s Whangarei Campus, and we’re so excited to have her on the team.
Kristeen comes to us with a truly impressive history as a traveller and as someone who has worked in the travel and tourism industry for her entire career. As a tutor, she will be guiding students, passing on her skills and knowledge, and helping them gain the qualifications that will get them a foot in the door of this exciting industry.
Read on to learn more about ITC’s newest Whangarei tutor!
Can you tell us a little about your history?
After many trips around the country visiting relatives at a young age, my first international travel experience was a trip to the UK at 18 to visit my sister living there. We travelled throughout England, up into Scotland and down to Lands End – and I knew then that the travel bug had set in.
I had been working in hospitality then but took the opportunity to take an administration job with the Spirit of Adventure Trust which started my love of all things Maritime, and soon was sailing off to the Pacific Islands on a Square Rigger for a 6 month season – this soon turned into 6 years of sailing the world as Cook, Purser and general problem solver on the same vessel. Within this time, during an 18 month voyage from the UK back to NZ, I visited the Europe’s western seaboard, the Caribbean, transiting the Panama Canal, and among many many other islands, visited the Galapagos, Easter Island and Pitcairn – all major highlights.
Settling down after that was difficult, so I started touring New Zealand as a Tour Director for APT and getting to know the country. Then it was back into Marine Tourism working with Fullers Bay of Islands, a four year stint at South Sea Cruises in Fiji, and then Explore in the Bay of Islands. Here I moved through to Reservation and Administration management, which were exciting and rewarding areas of the industry to be in.
Whilst later positions involved a lot of staff training, formal tutoring is relatively new to me but so far, it has been extremely enjoyable to be sharing my experience with keen young people ready to start their journey in this exciting industry.
What was your favourite job you’ve done?
Sailing on Soren Larsen (square rigger). I saw so many out-of-the way places, met so many interesting people and it never felt like work.
What do you think are the most important skills to have in the tourism industry?
Communication skills! Particularly if you are interacting directly with customers, but also in any part of the industry you need to communicate effectively to work as a team and provide best outcomes for customers and colleagues.
What is your best advice for those getting into the industry now?
Start today – experience everything you can, practice those communication/service skills every day – everywhere you go – it all adds up. Take every opportunity – you don’t know where it will lead.
Learn from industry pros like Kristeen
Kristeen is a great example of an industry professional who has spent a career working in travel and tourism – before joining the team at ITC.
Because you simply can’t learn that kind of experience from a book. Everyone on the ITC has lived, real-world experience that they use to help guide the next generation of travel and tourism workers.
Think that could be you? Learn more about our course options here, or get in touch with any questions here!
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