Minister announces tourism research scholars

Five young New Zealanders have been awarded $15,000 each for their research into the tourism industry, Tourism Minister Damien O’Connor announced today.

The Minister met with Wellington winners Diana Chan and Raymond Mullan at Victoria University this morning to congratulate them on their achievements.

“I congratulate all five of this year’s scholarship recipients,” said Mr O’Connor. “They are all high calibre masters level students whose applications were strongly supported by the tourism industry and their respective university departments.

“The projects cover exciting areas and will help tourism in New Zealand develop in a sustainable way, particularly when it comes to our natural environment. This research is vital for New Zealand tourism to keep ahead of the pack,” he said.

The winners this year are:

• Diana Chan (Victoria University) – Understanding environmental and cultural sustainability by Chinese international visitors to New Zealand.

• Raymond Mullan (Victoria University) – Environmental management approaches among tourism organisations in the urban setting of Wellington.

• Wendy London (University of Otago) - Assessing and addressing New Zealand cruise market capacity and responsiveness to increasing competition in the global cruise industry.

• Elizabeth Latham (University of Otago) - Human resources, the dilemmas of education and training, strategies and practice with focus on New Zealand and Samoa.

• David Marriott (Massey University) – Issues in achieving regulatory compliance of adventure aviation: impacts on very small organisations.

“It is great to see that a number of the topics covered such as environmental management, sustainability and keeping up with competition worldwide are linked to some of the outcomes in the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015. The latest Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report produced by the World Economic Forum saw New Zealand ranked seventh in the world for the sustainable development of the tourism industry.

“The aim of the scholarships is to encourage a research culture in New Zealand tourism, particularly research that is applicable and accessible to the tourism industry. I look forward to hearing about the future successes of these scholars in coming years, hopefully in the tourism sector,” said Mr O’Connor.