Study Tourism at Otago

Jess Lucas:

Hi, my name is Jess, and I’m doing a double major in Management and Tourism as a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Otago. The reason I chose Tourism to study in Otago is because it’s one of the top-rated departments in the world, and the lecturers, honestly, are so easy to get along with—they’re awesome.

Tourism is just so diverse. You can learn from different airline agreements to revenue management of hotels and restaurants, and you actually get to create your very own event with your mates. So definitely give it a try, and yeah, go for it!

Associate Professor Susan Houge Mackenzie:

Hi, I’m Susan Houge Mackenzie. I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, and I’m here to tell you about what our exciting department and courses have to offer.

I personally do a lot of research around adventure tourism with operators and communities, and I integrate that into a lot of the courses that I teach. I get to teach across a range of courses, and that’s everywhere from our 102 to 400-level courses for the Master of Tourism.

At the 100 level, we really talk more broadly about what tourism is and all the different opportunities there are that often really surprise students. They might be surprised that people working in tourism might end up working in events, might end up planning mountain biking races, might end up doing wine tourism, or might end up leading policy at a global level or at the national level working for Tourism New Zealand. One of the most successful campaigns in tourism globally has been 100% Pure, so all those sorts of things that are really exciting about working in the tourism industry—our students get to do.

They also find themselves at top-end hotels as a general manager, doing all sorts of exciting initiatives and planning. They also have the opportunity in our courses to work with some of the most well-respected and well-known tourism faculty in the world.

Our faculty is globally recognised for their expertise across a range of areas, some of those being leading environmental policy with regard to tourism, some of those being in terms of Māori and Indigenous tourism. We also have experts across a range of other areas, such as sport tourism, as well as looking at the relationships between communities, natural habitats, and sustainable tourism.

Everything that we do in this Tourism department is geared around being cutting-edge—leading the future of tourism. Tourism is changing really rapidly, and our students and our alumni are helping shape how that’s going to look in the future. So it’s a really exciting time to be a part of tourism and to study that with our department.

In our department, we look at tourism really holistically. It is not just an economic driver, but we also look very deeply at how tourism impacts communities and environments. We have a huge focus on sustainability and ensuring that tourism is a force for good in communities and in protecting environments, and it’s really exciting.

A lot of our staff are very well recognised for the work that they do—globally recognised. They consult with the New Zealand government. They also consult with Māori and Indigenous tourism operators, as well as a range of local community boards and agencies. That allows us to bring students along with us on that journey.

Students often have the opportunity to go to places like Queenstown and Central Otago, meet with policymakers, operators, and destination marketers like Destination Queenstown, and see how tourism works together with communities in these environments. So it’s pretty exciting for students!