Marisa Lunai
NMIT graduate Marisa Lunai has the world in her hands. As a busy travel assistant at House of Travel in Richmond, she promotes many different countries and helps organise holidays for clients to all corners of the globe.
It’s an ideal job for the self-confessed travel-nut who has travelled extensively in her own time through Europe and America, and recently graduated with distinction from NMIT’s Diploma in Tourism Management.
“I really love my job. It’s the right place to start after completing the course because there’s still so much that I have to learn and my current job gives me the opportunity to do so. The tourism industry is such a great industry to work in, there’s a lot of opportunities and a big variety of jobs to choose from.”
One of the benefits of Marisa’s job is that once she gains more retail experience, she will be sent on familiarizations to a selection of holiday destinations to learn more about the places that House of Travel promotes. “Familiarizations exist to help us travel agents get to know a variety of destinations and gather the knowledge we need to sell a product, or country to our clients.”
Many of the skills Marisa learned during her two year’s studying at NMIT, including customer service, finance and management skills, have come in useful in her job as a travel assistant.
“I do bookings, make up travel documents, office administration, I talk with clients and wholesalers, I do all sorts of things really.”
Marisa’s training also gave her the skills she needs to one day take on supervisory or business management responsibilities in the tourism industry.
For now though, she is happy finding out more about the world and sharing that with her clients.
“I would recommend this course to anyone who loves to travel and who is interested in travelling, even if they haven’t been overseas before. And anyone who loves the tourism industry basically.”
Students who would like to follow a career in Tourism Management are encouraged to find out more about the New Zealand Diploma in Business.
Watch and interview with Marisa Lunai on YouTube:
