Lynette Bergin Tourism Fellowship
Applications for the 2012 Fellowship are now open! Click here for more information...
A fellowship to support business and personal growth
The Victoria Tourism Industry Council (VTIC) continues to offer the Lynette Bergin Tourism Fellowship. Funded through member resources, the Fellowship will offer up to $8000 to the applicant and a further $1000 to the applicant’s employer. The Fellowship will be offered annually.
In naming the Fellowship in honour of Lynette Bergin, VTIC seeks to perpetuate the skills and contribution Lynette made to the industry and celebrate the guiding hand Lynette offered to many of the industry’s new recruits. A short tribute has been prepared about Lynette and her involvement in the tourism industry. Click here to see the tribute.
The Fellowship seeks to promote skills and excellence among young people and new entrants into the tourism industry, and contribute to the continued development and growth of tourism.
2011 Fellowship winner
In 2011, the Lynette Bergin Tourism Fellowship was awarded to Despina Karatzias, Manager at Global Ballooning. Despina is pictured here with Kevin Shinners, a cousin of Lynette's.
This project will help Despina research two international regions, Cappadocia in Turkey and Tuscany in Italy, that are renowned for hot air ballooning on a global scale, as well as food and wine. This will allow Despina to experience similar tourism product and offerings in these regions and compare them with Global Ballooning’s home base in the Yarra Valley. Despina intends to come away from this project with new strategies for tourism management, how to offer better quality tourist services and effective destination marketing to address the ongoing challenge of poor dispersal of international visitors to regional Victoria.
Past Fellowship winners include:
- Lindsay Goding – BDM, North Asia and Gulf Countries, Tourism Victoria
- Chris Porter – Executive Officer, Business Events Victoria and Cultural Tourism Victoria
- Matt Jones – Industry Development Manager, Grampians Tourism Inc.
- Erin McLeod – Accreditation Officer, Australian Tourism Accreditation Program Victoria
- Merran Fyfe – Marketing and Operations, Flagstaff Hill
- Megan Peacock – Sales & Marketing Manager, Eureka Skydeck 88
Who is eligible?
The fellowship is open to members of VTIC and VEIC and their employees, focusing specifically on individuals who have recently joined the tourism industry.
How to apply?
Applications for the 2012 Fellowship are now open! Click here to read the criteria and see how to apply. Applications close 17 September 2012.
How could you spend the money?
The application form asks the candidate to detail how they would spend the money by providing information on activities, costings and supporting research that identifies the benefits to their own professional and personal development.
Written applications will be called for each year and the winner will be selected by a panel appointed by VTIC. All shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by the Selection Panel.
The winner is able to apply the Fellowship funds to support an activity that provides both personal and business development benefits during the following year. This is no free lunch!
VTIC will promote the Fellowship, facilitate the judging process and introduce the winner to relevant parties to support the proposed project. The winner will be required to present a written report to the judging panel, participate in a seminar/conference held by VTIC and produce an article for publication by either association.
Candidate employers will be asked to support the successful candidate in completing their project.
About Lynette Bergin
The tourism industry will remember Lynette Bergin in lots of ways; someone who always got into the swing of an event – a silly hat, dressed as the plum pudding or the Christmas tree or trailing a bright blue boa.
Lynette always left an impression and usually in brightly coloured shoes! In the early 1990s, she provided a role model for many new and emerging tourism businesses. Lynette encouraged them all to integrate more fun into the sales process and the product message from Victoria became wrapped into a variety of entertainment themes. The enthusiasm with which the industry responded to these ideas was testament to their success and Lynette's commitment to professionalism.
She was the consummate sales person; she built her networks into family friends, with annual festivities and family celebrations. Lynette was where the business was – out in the market place not behind her desk.
Above all, she was a caring and compassionate person, loyal to tourism and to her workmates in an industry that she loved. She showed incredible dedication to her employer and to the tourism industry and regardless of her commitment to her job she always found time to mentor and guide the newest tourism recruits.
Tutelage in Lynette's care always included gentle guidance, education on the industry protocols and a long remembered example of how to enjoy every moment of your job and your life. Lynette's family are proud that her involvement and contribution to the tourism industry will be recognised through this Tourism Fellowship Award.
