The Tourism Chat Show

A lot of us have moved around the country for different roles, but it takes a whole lot more to move your family to another country - in the middle of a global pandemic!  This week, we welcome industry favourite, Tash Lawrence to the show to share her journey and experience in moving to Singapore late last year.  She's tackled setting up her new business (Kario Consulting), setting up home and set...

This year, Aotearoa celebrates Matariki as a nation, with a public holiday to mark the occasion set for 24th June.  We wanted to discuss this significant event and invited the 2021 Tourism Industry Champion from the NZ Tourism Awards, Ceillhe Sperath back onto the show.  Ceillhe shares with us how she celebrates Matariki with her whānau and the plans she has in her business.  We discuss the signif...

Attracting and retaining talent back to the tourism industry is a hot topic in every meeting room around our industry right now, so we thought it would be great to get our industry training organisation onto the show to discuss how they can help you do this.  We're joined by General Manager Industry Engagement at Service IQ, Tony Laskey. Tony is a sales and marketing professional with extensive ex...

What will travel look like post-coronavirus? Making the most of what’s on our doorstep, planning dream trips and greater flexibility than ever before are likely to become part of our future as we try to support an industry that’s been on its knees since the pandemic began in early 2020. Today we’re digging deep into some of the stats from one of our largest travel websites – The NZ Pocket Guide. ...

This episode goes live as the first planes out of Australia land, loaded with Aussie visitors!  The borders are open!  As one of Australia's leading travel wholesalers and NZ specialist, we wanted to invite Nick onto the show to hear how bookings are looking for the upcoming ski season, as well as further out to summer.  Nick shares who the first NZ Supplier visit was from, and how motivated his t...

Trenz Connect is currently on so we thought it would be perfect timing to share our four E's of putting your best foot forward online.  The past two years has seen an exponential rise in the use of online video conferencing for meetings, sales calls and trainings.  But it's sometimes easy to forget best practice and things can become a little too relaxed.  Michelle & Chambers are back together to...

Some of the best Covid success stories have come out of collaboration. When communities work together, they become stronger and this is very evident on Waiheke Island where they joined together very early on in the pandemic to target the domestic traveller and help keep Waiheke Island on the map.  Join us as we chat with Ecozip Founding Director, Gavin Oliver this week. Gavin has been a guest spea...

This is part two in a two part series chatting with some of the leading Inbound Operators in NZ.  Today we are joined by Mark Badland from Pacific Destinationz, Tim Reid from Southern World and John Gregory from Terra Nova Tours.  Are you ready for the international market to return?  What does your business need to do now before borders reopen?  Listen in to these two episodes to learn and unders...

This is part one of a two part series where we interview a panel of some of the top inbound operators in New Zealand.  They share the feedback they've received from their international markets and discuss what the demand will be when the borders open.   They also talk about what product or regions they think will do well, and give advice to the tourism industry about getting involved and ensuring...

It's no secret that tourism has a perception problem when it comes to encouraging youngsters into working in our industry.  There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to improve this via the education system, community engagement and industry advocacy.  The Go with Tourism Workforce Wānanga in November last year brought together great minds from across the Tourism & Hospitality indust...

There are many reasons that market research is important for all businesses, such as lowering business risks, understanding your customers better, simplifying decision making, testing a new product offering, and outselling your customers to name but a few.  We’re joined today by Cristine Angus from Angus & Associates, who are New Zealand’s leading provider of independent research, market intellige...

We're back with another Ask Destinate episode and this time, we have a special guest in the studio with us - Kerry Lahood.  Kerry has a extensive background working in sales across various sectors in the tourism industry so we thought he would be a great person to join us in discussing how to work best with the travel trade.  In this episode, we share our top tips from nearly 70yrs combined experi...

This week we continue our series of checking in with NZ Tourism's source markets to see how they are faring, and what we can expect when the borders reopen.  We're joined by one of NZ's top Japanese market experts, Tony Boot from BTM Marketing who will share his thoughts on the market, tell us about some trends that are starting to emerge and give operators some tips on how to approach working wit...

There has been some great research come out over the past year or so that talks about the changing trends we’re seeing in consumer behaviour with regards to their expectations of businesses - and one of those big trends is consumers want speed - which means that businesses will be forced to adopt a digital-first mindset to deliver it.  This week, we chat with INFLITE NZ CEO Adam Joyce to discuss t...

This week we head to Rimini, Italy to chat with Craig Smith.  Well we actually do that via zoom but we wished we were able to get to Italy right now!  Craig has a long history of selling NZ and Australian tourism experiences to the UK and European markets and joins us to chat about life from a European perspective.   We have an interesting chat about regional dispersal, which markets will respond...

We welcome very special guest Renata West, MD of Pacific Storytelling.  We chat through the similarities and differences in the approach to Covid between Tahiti and New Zealand.  How has Tahiti managed to keep its thriving tourism industry afloat?  What has changed in their operations since Covid arrived? What are the biggest challenges still facing them?  It's an insightful chat about how differe...

Welcome to our very first episode of 'Ask Destinate'.  We invited you to send in your questions about tourism marketing and this is the first in the series answering some of those for you.  This week we tackle two big questions:  1. How to create a compelling advertising campaign.  - The key steps needed for success - Understanding your Why - Getting to know your ideal customer - Emotionally conne...

Happy New Year and thanks for tuning back in for 2022!    Michelle & Chambers are back from a short break to continue bringing you interviews with the best in the tourism biz.  This week, we welcome Rob Jewell, Chief Executive of Fox Glacier Guiding on the West Coast.  Everyone in the industry knows that the West Coast has been one of the hardest hit regions since Covid hit, so we check in to see...

It's our 50th episode so happy birthday to us!   In our final episode for 2021, we chat with the outgoing Chief Executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Chris Roberts.  It's a candid chat about the highs and lows of the tourism industry over the past 7.5 years, the challenges still to face the industry and some sage advice for Chris' successor in the role.  We also ask Chris what it's like in the B...

As we glide into Christmas, we wanted to share another tourism success story with you.  A story about opening a brand new independent 5 Green-Star hotel in the heart of Auckland.  The Hotel Britomart's General Manager, Clinton Farley joins us for a chat about what it takes to do just that.   Clinton shares his varied and exciting career history with us, tells us what exactly a 5 Green-Star hotel i...

This week we welcome Goway General Manager, Kathy Turner.   Kathy has enjoyed a long and varied career in tourism in New Zealand and overseas, having started in the campervan industry at Auckland Airport back in the mid 1990s. From there, she hopped the ditch for the first time to work for Britz, before entering the world of selling travel online in 1998, at a time when online travel was not reall...

This  week, Michelle & Chambers are back to discuss the week's news - from border reopening dates, to YHA closing, to the new Traffic Light system coming in to play soon.   Then we spend the rest of the episode covering off our top tips for entering Business Awards and being successful.   These tips have been compiled by talking with award organisers, judges and from our own personal experiences. ...

It's hard to believe we've now reached our final episode in our 2021 NZ Tourism Awards special feature.  11 episodes, 31 interviews, 27 businesses later!  Today we have two more inspiring finalists and we also grab some time with the Tourism Industry Aotearoa Events & Marketing Manager to discuss the Awards night.  First up is Freeman Ehu from Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari - this is their secon...

It's the penultimate episode of our NZ Tourism Awards special series!  This week we interview three more finalists from this year's awards as we count down to the big 'virtual' awards on 29th November.  In this episode we start with Freeman Ehu, Marketing Manager at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari - finalists in two categories, but this week we focus on their Community Engagement Award.  Paul Nor...

Part 9 already!   Three more incredible finalists this episode.  We're joined by NZME Visitor Experience Award Finalist, Bruce Thomasen from Redwoods Treewalk in Rotorua.  He even gives us an exclusive scoop on their new summer attraction opening soon!  Then we welcome our final Marsh Tourism Industry Champion finalist, Bridget Legnavsky from Real NZ (formerly Wayfare).  Bridget's passion for deve...