Mr. Robert Charles G. Capistrano, a Filipino recipient of the Victoria Doctoral Scholarship and the Victoria Submission Scholarship of the Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) successfully defended his thesis on “Host-Guest Interactions: First-Generation Filipino Immigrants in New Zealand and Their Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFRs) from the Philippines” in October 2014. He called on Ambassador Virginia H. Benavidez at the Philippine Embassy on 14 November 2014 and shared his academic credentials, professional background, projects, research studies and publications and future teaching engagement at the University of the Philippines. Dr. Capistrano attained his Doctor of Philosophy in Tourism Management from VUW (2011-2014), Master of Marine Management from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada as CIDA scholar (2007), Master of Arts in Humanities major in Women’s Studies from St. Scholastica’s College in Manila where he graduated with distinction (2006), Certificate in Community-based Resource Management from St.Francis Xavier University, Coady International Institute, Nova Scotia, Canada as a CIDA Scholar in 2002 and Bachelor of Science in Biology from De La Salle University in Manila in 1998. In outlining his teaching and research objectives, Dr. Capistrano would like to share his knowledge, skills and expertise in tourism and hospitality management, handle teaching courses related to tourist behavior, destination management, sustainable and nature-based tourism and contribute to enhanced learnings derived from his doctoral dissertation on VFRs and his 15-year combined academic and practical experiences in the field of community-based natural resource management, gender and development, and social dimensions of marine protected areas as well as his articles on indigenous peoples’ rights published in international academic journals.

Ambassador Benavidez congratulated Dr. Capistrano for his outstanding academic achievement, for his passion to continue serving the Philippines through his many conservation projects and for his single focus to impart his knowledge, skills and expertise for the development and empowerment of Filipinos in his specialized fields of study. “He is truly a kind-hearted and selfless academician and practitioner who brings pride and honour to the Filipino people and we wish him every success as he goes back home and takes up a teaching position at the University of the Philippines-Asian Institute of Tourism,” she stated. In his own words, Dr. Capistrano dedicated his doctoral thesis “to the Filipino immigrant-hosts of New Zealand and their visiting loved ones from the Philippines. May succeeding generations of Filipinos in New Zealand continue to fuel VFR travel and inspire research on other cultures.” He thanked the Philippine Embassy Team for all the support and assistance in his academic and professional journey in New Zealand.