Wendy Wu Tours’ new 2024-2025 Japan brochure is available now.

The edition has a choice of 14 different tours in Japan plus tours operated by the company to neighbouring destinations Taiwan and South Korea.

Wendy Wu Tours continues to increase departures on many of its tours, doubling dates for 2024 in popular destinations such as Japan, Korea, Egypt and Jordon.

Managing director Paul Dymond says there is also strong interest in Turkey while even places like Uzbekistan and wider central Asia are selling out.

Wendy Wu Tours will add the Dawn Ceremony at Gallipoli as an option for New Zealand and Australian travellers in 2024.

Managing director Paul Dymond says people attending the service will then go onto the Treasures of Turkey tour that the company recently launched.

Wendy Wu Tours has launched a ‘Partner Flies Free or 50% off the single supplement offer’ on a range of popular tours. Clients can save up to $1,490 per couple on the partner flies free deal and up to $1,540 with the single supplement.

Managing director Paul Dymond points out there are over 20 tours and over 120 departure dates included in the offer across Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka tours. Tours are available for travel in 2022 and 2023.

The New Zealand suppliers group has ‘moved up a notch’ by voting to become a formal association and new chair Joe O’Sullivan says the entity will continue to put pressure on government over key issues.

O’Sullivan, of Cruise World, says the New Zealand Outbound Travel Suppliers Association (OTSA) is still (along with the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand – TAANZ) putting pressure on authorities to release the remaining funds in the Consumer Travel Reimbursement Scheme to where it needs to be.

Agents with clients who are thinking of travelling to popular Asian destinations in 2022 should be aware that a number of tours are already starting to sell out, says Paul Dymond, New Zealand based managing director of Wendy Wu Tours.

The company has just launched a Year of the Ox festival sale, with savings of up to $2400 per couple on itineraries in Japan and other destinations in 2022. The tours can be secured with a $99 deposit per person, with no more to pay before departure and a number of other flexible features.

Taiwan’s continued success in controlling Covid-19 is a reminder that New Zealand’s ‘travel bubble’ plans should not be restricted to Australia and the Pacific, a number of trade sources point out.

Paul Dymond, managing director of Wendy Wu Tours in New Zealand says the Taiwanese seem to have successfully managed Covid-19 and should soon be in a position to open borders with

A touch of the Wendy Wu Tours’ international experience combined with a ‘behind the scenes’ look at New Zealand provide a point of difference for the company’s just launched domestic programme, says managing director Paul Dymond.

‘We didn’t want to put something into the market that was already there,’ says Dymond. ‘These are fully inclusive tours aimed specifically at the Wendy Wu customer – and we’ve got hundreds of

Wendy Wu Tours has launched into South America with four tours – including a 28-day Ultimate South America itinerary. Wendy Wu Tours New Zealand managing director, Paul Dymond says the programme was a couple of years in the making, starting when company founder Wendy Wu had a holiday in the continent and ‘fell in love’ with it. ‘She saw a gap in the market for the type of tour we do, so she employed a team with South American experience who have created a programme that includes all airfares, most meals and sightseeing.’ Dymond says the brochure has been brought forward a few months to compensate for what is happening in China, but it was always going to be released this year. ‘We’ve got a selection of Classic and Go Beyond tours, plus FIT add-ons and we have intro offers with savings of up to $600 per person.’ 

The brochures will be available early March from Brochurenet and digitally. Other itineraries include a 12-day Essence of Argentina and Brazil, 14-day Chile top to toe (including Patagonia), and 15-day Panoramic Peru. Meantime Dymond says the company continues to get enquiries about Asia and is still seeing sales into Japan, Vietnam and India. ‘There is definitely still interest in Asia,’ Dymond said at Flight Centre’s Travel Expo in Auckland over the weekend. ‘A lot of people are not willing to book right now but they know what they want to do and as the climate changes they will start confirming.

Group travel to Asia is continuing to be strong out of New Zealand, driven particularly by Indonesia / Bali programmes, according to a leisure and incentive destination management company that held a trade function at White and Wongs, Auckland last week.