Salient

Top students get to hang out with Damien O’Connor

By Seonah Choi | 17 Mar, 2008

Five students from Victoria, Otago and Massey Universities have recently been awarded $15,000 each for their research in the tourism industry.

Tourism Minister Damien O’Connor met with Wellington winners Diana Chan and Raymond Mullan at Rutherford House last Thursday to congratulate them on their achievements.

“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,” O’Connor says.

Chan’s research is directed towards understanding environmental and cultural sustainability by Chinese international visitors to New Zealand, while Mullan intends to study environmental management approaches among tourism organisations in Wellington. Wendy London, Elizabeth Latham (Otago University) and David Marriott (Massey University) were named as the other scholarship recipients.

“[All five winners] are high calibre Masterslevel students whose applications were strongly supported by the tourism industry and their respective university departments,” O’Connor says.

“I look forward to hearing about the future successes of these scholars in coming years, hopefully in the tourism sector.”