It follows the Government's 2013/14 Budget announcement of an additional $123 million in funding for Tourism New Zealand over four years, with $34 million over four years specifically tagged to growing the business events sector.
WELLINGTON – Tourism New Zealand has completed its primary recruitment for the International Business Events team as well as appointing to the position of Shanghai-based Regional Marketing Communications Manager.
Helen Bambry has been appointed as Business Events Manager Australia, based in Sydney while Cristina McLauchlan has been appointed as Business Events Manager South & South East Asia, based in Singapore.
Nelson-born Sue Marshall has also been appointed to the position of Regional Marketing Communications Manager, based in Shanghai.
Helen joins Tourism New Zealand from Millenium Hotels & Resorts where her most recent role has been Sales Manager, Conferences & Incentives at Millennium Hotels & Resorts’. She starts in the Sydney office on Monday 18 November.
Cristina has over 15 years of experience organizing high profile events most recently with Avantgarde in China. She has worked in New Zealand and South East Asia in both the hotel industry and in the events space. Cristina begins work based in the Singapore office on 28 November.
Tourism New Zealand’s Director Trade, PR and Major Events Justin Watson says this newly created team is tasked with increasing visitor arrivals to New Zealand from the lucrative international business events sector.
“We now have our core people in place in market and activity is well underway. The team’s focus is on building relationships internationally and generating new business prospects that can be worked on with the New Zealand industry to convert into actual bookings.”
In September, Tourism New Zealand launched its first business events advertising campaign under the “Beyond Convention” brand and launched a newly revamped Business Events website.
Tourism New Zealand is taking its business events offer to market with a presence at key trade shows such as IT&CM in Shanghai, IMEX Las Vegas and Frankfurt, IT&CM Bangkok and Shanghai, and AIME in Melbourne.
There is also a programme of famils planned that will target trade and media from China, North America, Australia and South East Asia.
Tourism New Zealand has also appointed Nelson-born Sue Marshall to the position of Regional Marketing Communications Manager, based in Shanghai. This senior marketing role leads the organisation’s marketing communications activity across nine Asian markets.
Justin Watson says Sue has an extensive background in senior marketing roles having worked for Estee Lauder and L’Oreal across 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
She also brings tourism experience having worked with THL, when running her own full-service marketing consultancy based in Auckland.
“Sue has considerable experience in both building brands from scratch and developing large multi-national brands to suit the nuances of local Asian markets. Her skills and expertise will provide a significant boost to the team based in Shanghai as we work to really maximise the potential offered across the Asia region.”
Sue began on September 16 and will spend time with the New Zealand-based team before relocating to Shanghai.
International Business Events Team:
International Business Events Manager: Bjoern Spreitzer
Marketing Manager Business Events: Anna Fennessy
Marketing Executive Business Events: Anna Ward
Business Events Bid Manager: Leonie Ashford
Business Events Bid Executive: Michael Stokoe
Business Events Research Executive: Jean Hendry
Business Events Research Executive: Gemma Wood
Business Events Manager – Australia: Helen Bambry
Business Events Manager – South & South East Asia: Cristina McLauchlan
Business Events Manager – North America: Steven Dixon
Business Events Executive – North America: Alexa Bennett
Business Events Manager – China: Helen Zhang
Business Events Executive – China: To be appointed
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
