05 August 2011 Students' learning goes international

A dozen Lincoln University students will head to Sydney at the end of the month to five-star hotels, top events venues and sports stadia, and some of Sydney’s top attractions … in the name of study.

The students are working towards Bachelor’s degrees in Commerce (Hotel Management), Tourism Management, Sport and Recreation Management and are crossing the Tasman to look behind the scenes with key management personnel.

“The students will visit top hotels, visit international venues such as Olympic Park – home of the 2000 Olympic Games, meet events organisers and tourism operators,” says senior lecturer Dr Anthony Brien.

The visit will take place in their mid-semester break at the end of August, and Dr Brien says the trip isn’t just a jaunt across the ditch.

“Field tours blend the learning with business practice,” he says, “as well as offering the opportunity to meet and impress business executives and see operations first-hand.

“They will be speaking to senior managers and able to ask questions relevant to their study and their interest. Hotels, Tourism and Events studies have a symbiotic relationship, so the field tour not only brings students together from different disciplines, but exposes them to the array of interdependent career opportunities that exist in the international context,

Dr Brien says students who took part in a similar field trip to Auckland last year are going to Sydney this year, keen to compare Kiwi and Australian businesses.