5 of the best tourism adventures in New Zealand

The Auckland SkyJump is one of our top five tourism adventures! Which of these have you tried?

At ITC, we live and breathe tourism – and we’re especially proud of all the phenomenal adventures available for visitors (and locals!) here in Aotearoa.

Not only do many of our past graduates already work at some of the country’s best tourist attractions, we also have the pleasure of introducing our current students to some of what New Zealand has to offer during our courses and trips.

So here are our top five picks for the best tourism adventures in New Zealand, whether you live here and want to explore your own backyard, or whether you’re visiting from overseas!

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Your insider’s guide to: Working in bungy jumping

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in bungy jumping? We asked one of NZ’s top bungy pros to learn more!

When you study travel and tourism, there are so many exciting careers available to you.

Here in New Zealand, we’re the home of the bungy jump, and many of our students graduate with the goal of working as a Jump Master – like Fleur, who recently landed her dream job in Queenstown. 

To find out a little more about what it’s like to work in bungy jumping, we reached out to Graham Trubuhovich, National Operations Manager for AJ Hackett Bungy. Here’s what he had to say.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #50

In this week’s tourism news, New Zealand wins a top award for adventure travel, TRENZ 2016 kicks off, and more.

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New Zealand wins Best International Destination for Adventure award

Each year, the Lonely Planet Magazine India Travel Awards recognise the best of the best for international travel. This year – and for the second year in a row – New Zealand has taken the top spot for Best International Destination for Adventure.

The award was announced at an event in Mumbai on May 9, where Australia and South Africa were named as runners up to the award.

Steven Dixon, regional manager South and South East Asia for Tourism New Zealand, explains what the award meant for the country’s travel industry.

“As a key market for Tourism New Zealand, the award is a positive endorsement from Indian travellers – which supports our work to drive interest and awareness with those considering booking a trip to experience it for themselves.”

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #25

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news, New Zealand’s Great Walks are launched on Google Maps, the TIA supports a review of tertiary education, Air NZ wins another top award and much more.

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New Zealand’s Great Walks launch on Google Maps

360 degree views of New Zealand’s Great Walks are now available on Google Maps, including popular tracks such as the Abel Tasman and Routeburn.

The imagery was captured by the Google Street View Trekker, a backpack with more than 300 cameras which take photos every few seconds.

Ross Young, spokesman for Google New Zealand, said the addition of the Great Walks to Google Maps is likely to do wonders for tourism.

“Immersive technology experiences like these give international tourists the chance to see first-hand how stunning our country is before they travel,” says Ross.

“This is a great example of business and government working together to use technology and the internet to tell New Zealand’s story to the world.”

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ITC Famil Trip August 2015: Kelsi’s Story

ITC student Kelsi (far right) with some of her classmates on the August Famil Trip to Rotorua and beyond.

Student blogger Kelsi recently went on a four-day Famil trip around New Zealand’s central North Island. This trip is included in the New Zealand Certificate in Travel Level 4 and is one of the highlights of studying at ITC, as it’s a chance to experience the travel and tourism industry firsthand. Kelsi gives us a rundown of this amazing trip, featuring adrenalin-pumping white water rafting and the best Maori fry-bread ever!

Day 1: Bye for now, Auckland!

On Monday the 10th of August, three combined classes and one (brave) teacher set off with Stray for the ITC Famil to Rotorua! Tutu was our driver and once we were out of the CBD, he told us what to expect from the trip and a little bit about the company. A popular option with tourists, Stray offers a hop-on, hop-off bus service and guided coach tours throughout New Zealand and Asia.

Our first stop was Matamata, the home of Hobbiton. We had lunch at the I-site, which is shaped like a hobbit house!

Some of Kelsi’s classmates at the i-site in Matamata

After photos had been taken and lunch eaten, we continued on to Agroventures in Rotorua. Debbie, the Sales and Marketing Manager, talked a little about her career and the activities they offer at Agroventures. The most popular attraction is the Swoop, a 40 metre high swing. You are safe inside a full body harness but have to pull your own rip cord, swing down toward the ground before cables catch you. You can reach speeds of 130kph.

Debbie had some great advice for us: “Build excellent working relationships as they will make a difference in your travel and tourism career.”

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Three skills you need to work in adventure tourism

ITC Short Course students get a taste for adventure tourism at Auckland Bridge Climb & Bungy

Love travel, the outdoors and working with people? A career in adventure tourism could be for you.

Imagine doing something like this every day:

The above GIF shows an ITC student bungy jumping off the Auckland Harbour Bridge, one of the city’s most popular adventure tourism activities.

We recently caught up with Graham Trubuhovich (GT), General Manager of AJ Hackett Bungy Auckland. He has some great advice for students who dream of working in the industry.

If you don’t like people, walk away now

“Tourism is firstly a people job,” says GT, “so you should enjoy talking and be prepared to talk about all sorts of random things with random people.”

The good news is, if you love meeting new people and listening to their stories, then working at a place like Bungy will really be your dream job.

“Our crew spend their days meeting customers, signing them up and then either jumping them off or walking them around very high things. That’s usually fun enough, but often the crazy jump stories from customers doing funny jumps or saying funny stuff (there’s been all sorts of confessions over the years…!), plus some of the funny costumes people wear (if they wear anything…) can make your day.”

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #8

Once again, this week’s tourism news is incredibly positive, even as we head into the winter months.

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New Zealand favourite film destination

According to a study by the HBO television network (Game of Thrones, The Wire, etc.), New Zealand is the most popular film destination in the world. This is largely thanks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said ‘film tourism’ continues to be a strong aspect of New Zealand’s marketing strategy.

“We have continuing interest from film makers wanting to use New Zealand as their backdrop and we are confident our role of film tourism is going to keep us top of mind for those people wanting to live the dream and visit their favourite film locations,” Mr Bowler said in a statement.

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