Overseas Trips

Students Education Trip to the South Pacific Islands

Learning about tourism does not just come from books, you can often get a better understanding of tourism through your experiences. Within the Department of Tourism Management we offer you first hand experiences of visiting and studying other countries and cultures in the Asian pacific region.

During semester breaks educational and cultural trips to various destinations are developed with your participation. Over the past four years we have visited Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia. This year we are planning to visit the Cook Islands and Fiji.

Charlie Panakera, the organising Lecturer, said that the students through the visits learn about many soft adventure activities such as village camp; cultural tours, listening to stories from village chiefs about 'head-hunting' in days gone by which necessitates participating in 'kava drinking' and 'betel nut chewing', to the more sedate activities such as scuba diving, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, sailing and paddling.

Other than having lots of fun, traveling to interesting destinations, meeting and interacting with host communities, it exposes students to the many facets of tourism and hospitality industry. In these trips students are encouraged to examine interesting and challenging topics that are faced by island nations, investors, management and staff of tourism and hospitality industry. Information and experienced gained assist students in their assignments and class projects.