Meet the student who learned first-hand about the diverse range of roles in the tourism industry
Ryan Mackenzie began at ITC planning to become a flight attendant, but his journey has led him elsewhere!’
Like many ITC students, Ryan Mackenzie came to ITC with plans to work as a flight attendant. Yet while many of our students do go on to become cabin crew, Ryan’s path eventually led him elsewhere, highlighting just how many different roles and paths are available to those with industry-leading travel and tourism qualifications!
We recently spoke to Ryan about his journey. Read on to learn more.
How did your adventure begin with us at ITC?
My adventure began not knowing what I wanted to do or what to specialise in. I had studied various subjects at my previous schools and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I ended up settling on tourism as a great way to not only see the world in some aspects with some knowledge behind me, but to also learn and work in an environment of bringing that feeling of joy/happiness travel has.
What do you think ITC makes different from other education providers?
ITC is quite different as it was very enjoyable to work at a steady pace and learn a variety of topics all within what felt like a very short timeframe. It’s provided some good qualities to help me improve my skills, which has also assisted with my current role now.
What is your fondest memory of ITC?
My fondest memory would’ve been the Famil or fun event days on campus, as those always felt like both breaks and opportunities to learn, which provided some uniqueness that other education providers may not do.
When you first started at ITC, what did you want to do and did this change? If so, why?
At first I was looking at doing Flight Attending hence why I chose Level 3 Aviation to specialise in. Being out in the industry now, it still remains the overall goal and vision, but I was given the great opportunity to work at my role now which I enjoy.
Tell us about your career journey so far since you’ve graduated?
Career wise so far I have a full time contracted role off of work experience provided. I am now in the midst of applying for one of the permanent roles that have just opened up recently.
What was your biggest learning experience so far?
The biggest learning experience I’ve had during ITC and my role was experiencing a side of Tourism I did not see myself in. It allowed for a fresh look upon what is available and what things are like. As such my day to day looks 10x times different than one of a flight attendant. A day to day in my role will involve coming in to work (early usually for me) and come time to start everything kicks into motion. The role involves managing your knowledge resources, product knowledge and system expertise to assist customers.
Tell us about your new role? What’s a typical day look like for you?
A day can get really stressful fast for someone new to the experience but it is something that gets picked up fast. You have to handle emails and calls at the same time, with writing an email sometimes taking forever on a busy day with lots of calls (especially if the enquiry is lengthy or has quite a lot of questions). Not only are there these, but also dynamic working systems of filing cases (complaints, lost property, and manual refunds) usually adding to a small backlog of free time.
How did ITC prepare or support you for all this?
One thing that is great that I personally enjoy is you can access a count of how many calls/emails are taken during your shift and the average length. My average calls being around 50 over an 8 hour shift and around 40 emails a day since I use my own templates to maximise efficiency and clear the brand I operate under queues quickly. The role is not just that too, over the course of the 5 months I’ve been there I’ve been trained in handling Lost Property and Live Chat (that being those ‘chat bots’ on websites, albeit we don’t have a robot so it leads to some interesting opening messages).
What are you most excited about your journey from here?
ITC helped improve on my customer service skills more so for the backline/not in person interactions which I was not used to (still even to this day) alongside actually providing the opportunity for work experience ending up in a job too!
I’m quite excited to keep learning more about my role at Entrada Travel Group, beyond that definitely planning on jumping to the Airport scene of tourism. Might end up as a check in agent if the flight attendant applications do not work out first try. Based on my current volume of handling luggage enquiries and general reservation systems I would quite suit it.
What advice do you have for others wanting to study tourism?
My advice would be to go in with a clear goal in mind if you have one, and come out with an open mind after learning about all the possibilities as it is super easy to enjoy the other sectors of tourism too.
Considering studying with ITC?
Ryan is a great example of a student who found a fantastic role for his skills and interests, even if it wasn’t his original goal! Whether you have a career goal in mind, or if you’re not sure where you want to end up, a qualification with ITC can help to launch you into a career in travel and tourism.
Explore our course options here, or get in touch with any questions!
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