Marina Yang (Mo Yang)

Master of International Tourism Management student

Deciding to come to Auckland and AUT for her studies was easy, says Marina Yang (Mo Yang) who came to AUT as an international student from China to study a Master of International Tourism Management.

“I love travelling and want to pursue a career in the tourism industry. I wanted to study in New Zealand, a beautiful country with a well-developed tourism industry, which will provide more opportunities for my future career. AUT’s Master of International Tourism Management is highly reputable, which made my decision to come here easy.

“The curriculum of this programme is very practical and the knowledge gained is highly applicable to the tourism industry. I believe that completing this degree will broaden my horizons and provide me with more inspiration and skills. Once I graduate, I plan to find a job in the tourism industry to gain more experience and connections, and eventually I want to start my own business.”

Investigating lifestyle entrepreneurship
For her Master of International Tourism Management research, Marina is focusing on the resilience of lifestyle entrepreneurship in the tourism industry.

“There is currently limited research on the topic of resilience of tourism lifestyle entrepreneurship, even though these enterprises are more vulnerable compared to larger businesses.

“I chose this topic because I want to build my own lifestyle business in the tourism sector in the future, and I want to learn how to build resilience for small lifestyle businesses.”

Marina’s master’s degree research is being supervised by Dr Abrar Faisal from AUT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism.

Advice for other students
Expecting to graduate from AUT in late 2025, Marina has some great advice for other students.

“My advice is to make good use of all the resources provided by AUT, and to attend all kinds of AUT events, workshops and wellbeing programmes. These are great opportunities to meet interesting people and enrich your life experiences.”

There is plenty of support available to students, she adds.

“For me, the biggest challenge was academic writing and searching for sources. AUT’s library offers a number of workshops on APA referencing and systematic literature reviews, which has made academic writing for my master’s degree much easier. The lecturers are also very helpful and are always ready to help us with any academic or career questions.”