You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Meet Mel Wong
Job:
Visitor & Trade Development Manager
Job description:
I am a member of the aeronautical development team, which is responsible for growing passenger numbers through Christchurch Airport - which then leads to more air services for our airport. I work with airlines to assist with marketing their services and also travel agents, both here and in our key markets, to encourage them to send more passengers through Christchurch Airport.
Work background:
I have worked in the Aviation/Tourism industry my entire career. It’s addictive! I started with Air New Zealand as a travel agent for seven years in various roles, including in the London reservations office. Then I worked for a large wholesaler based in Los Angeles, selling airfares and holidays to Australia, NZ and the Pacific Islands. After getting a bit homesick, I found a job at Tourism New Zealand in Auckland, where I worked for four years including a stint seconded to AirAsia X in Malaysia and joined Christchurch Airport two years ago.
Favourite part of job:
Learning new things every day and getting to meet and collaborate with some pretty awesome people here and around the globe.
Least favourite part of job:
Credit card and cash reconciliations.
What I am working on now:
We recently announced some exciting news: China Airlines announced it will fly into Christchurch this summer - via Sydney three times a week for three months. I’m working directly with the airline and with some key travel agents to make sure the service is a success.
A quick story about a job well done:
I recently worked on a project with our airline partner Singapore Airlines out of Japan. The Japanese love rugby and they have a lot of school teams that they send away to train, often in large groups and mostly to Australia. With the help of Burnside High School, we created a world-class coaching programme with some of the coaches from the Crusaders and the All Blacks and brought 20 rugby coaches over from Japan for five days. It went so well that some of them have started sending their teams to Christchurch for training.
A (humorous) story about a job that went badly and what you learned:
I was attending meetings in Shanghai with my boss and caught a train to the airport with plenty of time to spare. It’s always a bit tricky taking public transport in a non-English speaking country. I was relaxing until I realised after an hour the train seemed to be going the other way. We ended up on the entirely wrong side of the city and had to change trains. We would’ve qualified for the Olympics with how fast we had to run to catch our flight. Lesson: don’t get complacent about getting to the airport on time!
Qualifications:
I have an Advanced Diploma in Tourism from about a century ago.
Interests outside work:
Travelling, mountain biking, hiking, reading and shopping.
Mel Wong is the Visitor & Trade Development Manager at CIAL. Image: CIAL.