Tourism scholarship for Brielle

12 August 2014

Tourism scholarship for Brielle

All through school, Brielle Gillovic dreamed of a career in travel.

And now, with help from a Thrifty Scholarship in Tourism, the 22-year-old University of Waikato student will continue to pursue those dreams.

Brielle has just completed a Bachelor of Management (Hons) majoring in Tourism Management and is this year’s recipient of a $4300 Thrifty Scholarship in Tourism.

“I’m so thrilled to receive this scholarship,” Brielle says. “I put a lot of effort into the application as I understand how incredibly important tourism is to the New Zealand economy.”

The former St Peter’s School student from Hamilton grew up travelling with family during her younger years, and these experiences helped give her a taste for more travel. She also went on a three-week student exchange to Taipei while at St Peter’s, spent four months working in Melbourne, six months working in Portugal and travelling throughout Europe.

“I’ve always loved travelling and was interested in the tourism industry having done a tourism paper as a level 100 elective. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to major in it.”

For her Honours dissertation, Brielle researched the existence, scope and breadth of accessible tourism in New Zealand.

“There hasn’t been a great deal of research into accessible tourism in New Zealand, which affects people with accessibility needs such as the disabled or ageing populations, of which transportation is an incredibly significant issue.”

Brielle now intends to begin her PhD researching the experiences of carers who travel with people with disabilities, and what it means to be a carer.

“So I’d like to say thank you to Thrifty Car Rental for this amazing scholarship,” she says. “It’s so great to know there are organisations out there that want to support university students trying to contribute new knowledge to the tourism industry.”

Thrifty Car Rental General Manager Emma Gardiner says the company was delighted to assist a worthy recipient such as Brielle.

“Her work will undoubtedly add to the New Zealand tourism experience of the future. We are interested in Brielle’s findings in relation to rental cars to identify any areas that we can adapt to offer a service or product enhancement.”

ENDS

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