Simon McKearney has finished up as executive general manager at Helloworld Travel. He left on 9 September, earlier than originally planned.

He says this is to enable him to fully move into a new work environment. Communicating with HLO franchise owners, associates and others by email, McKearney said he is making progress in his ‘desires to
re-imagine travel’ and shared this with HLO’s global CEO last week.

The board of the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand says that due to the significant financial impact Covid-19 has had on the travel industry and the flow on to TAANZ it has made the difficult decision to restructure the association.

The outcome is that the role of the chief executive officer is no longer affordable and Andrew Olsen will be leaving in September. The board has highlighted Olsen's many years of service to the association and notes he has championed the TAANZ accreditation model and the elevation of staff qualifications and standards, brought to light the successful National Travel Industry Awards, implemented the ATA brand, been at the forefront of negotiations with IATA and more.

Air New Zealand’s chief commercial and customer officer Cam Wallace has resigned from the airline.  

He will step away from Air New Zealand on 30 September and will provide consultancy support to CEO Greg Foran until the end of 2020.  Wallace has been with Air New Zealand for 19 years and has held a variety of senior and executive roles. 

Former Tourism Australia New Zealand manager, Jenny Aitken, will now represent the Sunshine Coast region.

Aitken spent 12 years at the helm of Tourism Australia in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Travel Brokers team has nominated supplier reps that have gone the extra mile over the past couple of challenging months.

James McAlloon, Chimu Adventures' relationship manager for Queensland will walk across Australia to raise money for people working in South America’s tourism industry hit hard by Covid-19.

In countries where government handouts are few and far between, earning a living for people, who normally make a living out of tourism, has been at all but at a standstill.

McAlloon’s responded to Chimu’s ‘shout out’ to its teams for ideas on how to raise money for the hardest hit.

Shannell Christmas has joined Global Travel Network (GTN) with her new retail shop in Whangarei – Travel and Cruise HQ. It's a return to GTN for Christmas who previously operated Small World Travel and Cruise.

‘I knew I wanted to have a large cruise specialist presence here, because I love cruise and feel it is something consumers look for,’ explains Christmas. ‘I created a brand, found a fantastic location and got myself set-up

Bjoern Spreitzer will lead the newly established team at Tourism New Zealand to restart domestic tourism. The team will ensure TNZ is set up to work in the domestic space and will be structured similar to offshore markets with PR, marketing and trade resource reporting to Spreitzer as general manager.

TNZ’s work in the domestic space will focus on demand stimulation at a national level. Research is currently underway to gather consumer insights to help shape an audience and channels strategy.

Moka Ioane-Laufoli will take on the acting chief executive officer role at Niue Tourism until recruitment for the position can be made.

The original writer of Pearl’s Pearlers, a regular feature in TRAVELinc Memo / Travel Memo has passed away aged 99.

Pearl Cooper, a former travel agent, started writing her gems in the 1990s when the memos were sent out with brochures to travel agents from Brochure Rack. She continued writing the regular Pearlers when former Travel Memo owner Kevin Blackford started sending the Memo as a stand alone publication – on paper and then digitally.

The travel industry is paying tribute to an agent who is credited with ‘opening up the world of travel and adventure’ to the Upper Hutt community.

Haka Tourism Group has appointed Eve Lawrence as its new general manager to head up Haka Tours and ANZ Nature Tours.

Erin Miller is the latest travel advisor to move to Fuzion Travel.

Zac Watson, Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED), is the new chair of the Young Tourism Export Council (Young TEC) and Lilly Douglas, Tourism New Zealand is vice chair.

Queenstown-based brokers xtravel, of Travel Managers Group, held its first mini-conference recently, celebrating its growing team.

Gau Kurman is the new marketing executive with Viva Expeditions in Auckland, dealing with public relations and marketing to the travel trade.

Travel Brokers Mark and Renee Frampton are the latest new additions to Travel Managers Group.

Scenic Matavai Resort Niue has appointed Jodi van de Wydeven as business development manager for meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE).

Jet Park Hotels has appointed a new group HR manager, Tanya Myers.

Ezi Car Rental, one of New Zealand’s largest 100% Kiwi owned and operated rental car operators, has appointed Nikki Milward as a business development manager.

Adventure World Travel has a new Asia expert in the team: Darren Case started with the company early this year after spending half of last year travelling through Asia.

David Redmond has recently joined the team at Williment Travel and GO Sports & Events as strategic partnership manager.

Jo Rees has joined Croatia Times Travel as a wholesale travel specialist.

Queenstown-based xtravel, approved broker of Travel Managers Group, has expanded into the North Island with the addition of a new broker.

Helen Urban has joined Viva as sales support. She will be keeping travel agents updated with new sales, tour updates and support Flavio Stadnik in his BDM role.

Tom Svensen is the new partnership manager, New Zealand, with Tourism Fiji.

The ability to specialise and offer flexibility, as well as operating a general retail travel agency, has kept House of Travel Ellerslie in good stead since it opened in December 2004.

Fergus Brown, CEO of Holiday Parks New Zealand will represent the hospitality sector on Service IQ.

Auckland based personal travel manager Nancy Crooks has joined Travel Managers Group (TMG) this month.

Captain Cook Cruises Fiji has appointed Bob Speed as general manager, based at its head office at Port Denarau Fiji.

Lisa Mudgway is the new BDM at Fiji Airways and will primarily be looking after Flight Centre and STA, but will also call on all brands.

Benjamin Dale is Abercrombie & Kent’s New Zealand account manager, based at the new Auckland office on Hobson Street.

Erin Daly has joined World Journeys’ team of expert travel designers this week.

Lynn Meechan has joined Exotic Holidays as groups manager.

Gray Gibson, former owner of Mondo Travel Takapuna and past member of the New Zealand Olympic Yachting team has joined Active Asia to take the group role to a new level.

Terri Hayley is new with NZ Travel Brokers in Lower Hutt.

Heritage Hotel Management has promoted Jass Sidhu from central reservations team leader to revenue and yield manager for the Heritage and City Life Auckland Hotels.

Gilpin Travel has a number of new faces in its team.

Mark Wood of Lateral Travel has joined Travel Managers Group as a broker.

Sara MacLeod has been named director global sales New Zealand with Marriott International.

Fiona Teama has been appointed marketing manager of Tourism Solomons.