Students experience industry as tourists

For the third year in a row, the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark opened its doors to a group of University of Canterbury students.

They visited the Waitaki district for a field trip last month.

During the two-day trip, the tourism students visited different sites of the geopark including Moeraki Boulders, Katiki Point, Oamaru Lookout Point, Oamaru Penguins, Elephant Rocks, Vanished World Centre and Takiroa Maori rock art site.

The course is titled Sustainable Tourism Enterprises and Destinations.

University of Canterbury senior lecturer Dr Richard Aquino said it was important for the students to experience the tourism industry first hand.

"One of the key principles to deliver sustainable tourism development is to understand collaborations and partnerships of different organisations and individuals within a destination.

"We want to learn how different partnerships develop in real life, because I can teach them at school in the classroom but listening to the people who actually work in this space is something that can not be replicated.

"The geopark is doing a great thing in terms of building relationships across different organisations and businesses and more importantly with the iwi."

For a lot of the students, it was their first time in the Waitaki district, he said.

"The students are telling me ‘I haven’t even heard of this penguin place before, it’s just so cool and amazing’.

"They totally want to come back again."

Geopark manager Lynley Browne was grateful to everyone who helped out during the two days.