The World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA)

I conducted my international field placement with the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) in Aotearoa New Zealand and I worked with the organization’s director on three major projects: Facilitating Kapiti Island Community Workshop, Organizing a Seminar in collaboration with Victoria University of Wellington on WINTA’s rights-based Indigenous Tourism Engagement Framework (ITEF) & Reviewing WINTA’s Training Collateral. Through these projects, I obtained hands on experiences and developed the skills of organizing and facilitating workshops and seminars, preparing proposals, conducting research, preparing and delivering presentations, developing training materials, and preparing communication documents and reports. The amount of learning, networking, and the responsibilities I had were beyond what I expected. I participated in a number of meetings, lectures, a forum, networking events, and Maori cultural celebrations. I connected and worked with leaders of Indigenous tourism organizations, community tourism businesses, NGOs and people in academia. It was so inspiring to be part of these initiatives that had positive outcomes and will continue to result in an added value by promoting a rights-based approach to Indigenous tourism across the world.