Contributors
Find out about our list of contributors to Tourism Industry Blogs, they are a varied selection of Tourism Industry professionals, operators and leaders with differing areas of expertise. Become a Contributor – Email us to get started.
Michelle Ackers
Owner of ADEPT Marketing and founder of the Tourism Industry Blog, Michelle has a strong background in tourism, online marketing and business mentoring. Her combined marketing experience with Air New Zealand, Vianet International and more recently with her own online marketing business combine to provide the perfect base to share ideas and manage this blog.
View Michelle’s articles | Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
Grant Alexander
Prior to starting Studio Alexander with his daughter in 1999, Grant was the cofounder of designworks and instrumental in building it into an award winning company of 60 people across three offices in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney. As a Director of Studio Alexander Grant has had a hands role with Brand and communications work with both Qualmark and Auckland Airport over the last four years. The wider design and business community has recognised Grant’s contribution to design in business: He is a fellow of the Designer’s Institute of New Zealand (DINZ), a recipient of many Best Design Awards, has written about design for several New Zealand publications and was the recipient of the lifelong DINZ Outstanding Achievement Award in 2006. In 2009 grant was inducted into the Creative Industries Massey University Hall of Fame
View Grant’s articles | Website | LinkedIn
Angela Best
An authority on the diverse and complex travel industry, Angela boasts more than 20 years experience in sales, marketing and advertising. As President of Anahere Inc, Tourism Marketing Group, located in Santa Monica, California, Angela brings extensive knowledge and expertise gained through nine years as Market Development Manager with Tourism New Zealand and personally managing the marketing activity for independent international tourism organizations.
View Angela’s articles | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
Robyn Bolton
Robyn is the owner of Activate Marketing in the Bay of Islands and was General Manager of Destination Northland for 9 years until January 2009. With extensive experience in tourism and destination marketing she provides marketing consulting advice to tourism businesses and organisations.
View Robyn’s articles | LinkedIn
Daniel Bridges
Daniel has been running Travelbug for Trade Me for the last couple of years, but in his previous working life he spent 5 years with Villa Maria wines and some time with House of Travel in Wellington. He is passionate about customer service and growing the online travel market for suppliers throughout New Zealand.
View Daniel’s Articles | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
Geoff Button
Geoff has worked as a nature guide and a tour guide for 12 years and is passionate about this great little country. He teaches two Ecotourism programmes at Tai Poutini Polytechnic on the West Coast of the South Island and specializes in New Zealand plants, geology and techniques in guiding, focusing not on extreme outdoor activities but the interpretation of the surrounding environment to enhance the experience of visitors. He also is involved in the development of EcotourismNZ, a support organisation for ecotourism operators in New Zealand.
View Geoff’s Articles | Website
Tessa Clarke
Previously a Top Trip Leader and tour guide for Grand Circle Travel, plus National Sales Manager for Vianet International, Tessa has excellent experience with tour development, the accommodation industry and travel in general.
View Tessa’s articles | LinkedIn
Steve Davies
Owner of Accommodate-Me.co.nz, New Zealand’s largest boutique accommodation website and Digital Director at Electric Art Advertising, an indie agency that specialises in tourism through-out the South Pacific giving Steve a huge insight into all facets of the travel industry.
View Steve’s Articles | Website | Facebook
Patrick Dyzell
Patrick is a shareholder in ShortRates.com a last minute accommodation provider based in Auckland. An accountant by trade he knows and understands the value of yield management. Having worked within the IT industry for over 10 years he developed an acute awareness of the power of marketing and advertising using the web.
View Patrick’s Articles | Website
Rob Grieve
Rob Grieve quite likes to think of himself as not only a passionate travel guy/guru/maestro who has set up his own top-end, luxury New Zealand inbound travel business Kiwi Does It Ltd, but also a born and bred Kiwi. Specializing in personalized itineraries for those wishing to do things a little differently, Rob’s experience and broad travel knowledge means that he knows what a luxury itinerary should look like. Kiwi Does It has recently been recognized as being a carboNZero organization, which is pretty cool indeed. It’s not an easy certification to get, and his commitment and passion to ‘keep New Zealand beautiful’ is there in black and white.
View Rob’s Articles | Website | Facebook | Twitter
Chris Hunter
Chris has more than 20 years’ experience in the tourism industry and has held senior roles in strategy, planning, retail, wholesale and business travel, and marketing. Prior to become CEO at Tourism Exchange, Chris held senior positions within Flight Centre, Stella Travel, and Air New Zealand. At Air New Zealand, Chris started his career in tourism with roles in sales and marketing including Manager Retail Group, Manager Pacific Islands, and Business Development roles in the UK and New Zealand. In 2002 he was appointed GM Global Direct Sales where, along with successfully planning and directing the Direct Sales businesses, he oversaw the phenomenal growth in direct distribution for the airline.
View Chris’s Articles | Website | Twitter
Simon McManus
Simon has an extensive understanding of the tourism industry and associated technology. With seven years in international hospitality management and four years in IT management and internet service roles, his strengths lie in communications skills and e-marketing management. He has a Swiss Hotel Association Diploma in International Hotel Management, Adelaide and a New Zealand Diploma in Business.
View Simon’s Articles | Website | Twitter | LinkedIn
Gareth Pearce
Currently Managing Director of Ezibed.com, New Zealand’s largest supplier of last minute accommodation. Gareth has over 12 years experience within the New Zealand Tourism Industry with previous rolls including Executive Manager, EAM & Sales & Marketing Manager of the Chateau Tongariro, Mt Ruapehu. Gareth as experienced international tradeshows such as PowWow USA, Rendezvous Canada & ATE Australia & continues to further expand Ezibed.com into additional international markets.
Melissa Teesdale
Melissa has worked in sales for over 10 years. Her experience ranges from resort spas in Queenstown to P&O Cruise Liners which took her to Alaska, the Caribbean & Hawaii. Melissa then spent 3 years in Auckland successfully operating her own business, based at Les Mills, before launching her own product range. She also trained with Link Business Brokers before taking leave to care for her two young girls. Being one of the Y generation, Melissa is comfortable with technology and online marketing. Having released an online brand she understands the power of website position, optimizing search engines and driving people to your site.
View Melissa’s Articles | Website | Twitter | LinkedIn
Jan Willoughby
Jan Willoughby is Director of highlypalatable.com – N.Z.’s leading specialist food & wine tourism consultancy. Over the past 10 years she has worked in the areas of national and regional food and wine tourism strategies, food & wine tourism trails development, national product development projects, tourism business mentoring and international projects. Jan continues to passionately support the development of the food and wine tourism sector across NZ and business/product development for individual clients.
She also has more than 20 years experience in the NZ tourism industry as an international destination marketer, at both national and regional marketing levels across both the public and private sectors.
View Jan’s Articles | Website | LinkedIn
Steve Wilson
Into his final year of completing a PhD in tourism management, marketing and policy, Steve is concurrently the director of Social Eyes Consultancy, which specialises in social and market research, policy formulation, marketing and social media strategies for the tourism industry. A keen traveller, he has spent over four years in the UK hospitality industry, returning to New Zealand five years ago to further his career in the New Zealand tourism and hospitality industries, which have included research and planning roles with Christchurch and Hawkes Bay Regional Councils, BRANZ, Lincoln and Massey University.
View Steve’s Articles | Website | Twitter
Jeremy Zinzan
Although a qualified lawyer, Jeremy has chosen to follow his passion for travel, and has an inbound luxury travel business. He also manages the marketing for an exclusive group of eco-friendly New Zealand lodgings, and it is his experience in this role that has lead to the development of his expertise with Tourism Edge.
View Jeremy’s articles | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
