Jason Gerrard- the new tourism tutor at EIT Tairāwhiti

 

After 10 years as one of the East Coast’s most successful tourism operators, Jason Gerrard is now sharing his industry knowledge with students studying for the Travel and Tourism New Zealand Certificate at EIT.

The journey has brought Jason full circle back to the classroom. He started his career studying teaching, but left to start his own business on the East Coast.

Being from Reporua, he saw a big gap in services for people wanting to explore the Coast, which he believes is one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

He launched East Bro, East Cape Tours. It was a hop on-hop off venture which went around the Coast two or three times a week.

There were three locations travellers could stay. This meant they could hop off and explore an area and hop back on the next available bus and explore another.

The service proved popular, attracting people from throughout the world.

Jason did his own marketing. He focussed it on areas like Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty working with tourism and travel companies with already established markets, eventually going further afield to Australia, Europe, Asia and the United Kingdom to attract customers.

He also learned how to optimise the reach of his website and internet marketing, using techniques he is now able to share with his students.

As well he was asked to run circuit tours around the country with existing companies such as Kiwi experience.

It was amazing work and he met people from all over the world.

But it was also quite challenging and, at 44, he began to feel slightly old.

Most of his customers were in the 18-26 year-old age bracket.

He tried to get the business to a level where he could employ younger people who were qualified bus drivers with good local knowledge but had difficulty finding people with the right skills.

Then he saw EIT’s advertisement for a tourism tutor.

“Teaching was always my passion and seeing it combined with my experience in tourism was a dream come true.”

A qualified tertiary teacher, he applied for the position and is now leading EIT Tairawhiti’s Level 3 and 4 diploma course in tourism. 

Both courses incorporate the City and Guilds L1 & L2 qualification, which leads to a Diploma in International Tourism. This is an UK qualification recognised internationally and will help equip those students seeking experience in the industry overseas.

As well as teaching students the core components such as customer service, Destination New Zealand, regional tourism and the operations of the industry, Jason connects them to his Facebook group page, where his wide network of tourism contacts advertise their job vacancies within the industry nationwide and in Australia.

He believes there is also huge scope within the local industry, which although still fledgling, is showing signs of enormous growth.