During the two-day trip, the tourism students visited different sites of the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark.
It was the second straight year the class had visited the geopark.
University of Canterbury senior lecturer Dr Richard Aquino said the goal of the trip was to understand the development of destinations.
"We want them to experience that first hand. It’s also difficult to teach tourism management without getting out of the classroom.
"As I always tell my students, we always have to go out there to get a deeper understanding of how tourism development works, and the geopark is giving us that opportunity."
Following the trip, the students developed projects which would be put forward to possibly be adopted by the geopark, he said.
"These projects could be about tourism experiences or sustainability initiatives that can be implemented at the geopark."
He and his students were very grateful for the geopark hosting them again this year, Dr Aquino said.
