‘The USA and Canada are huge for me. I have a client travelling on 10 May with a day by itinerary for three and a half months, taking in Canada, the US and Mexico.’

Herd says group travel is definitely happening. She has organised a 40-pax group tour to the South Island that sold out in 48 hours.

‘We’ve got three nights in Stewart Island, three in Invercargill, one in the Catlins and one in Dunedin. I treated it like I was organising an incentive group, with a welcome function at Transport World in Invercargill and a final function in Larnach Castle. We’ve also got a lunch at Olveston.’

When it comes to actual incentive travel, Herd sees growing interest and has a domestic programme heading to Taranaki soon.

‘The corporate incentives are not ready to travel overseas yet but it is coming, I would expect it to be picking up by 2023.’

Webinar knowledge lands big booking

A high end booking in French Polynesia has proven the worth of taking part in webinars during the Covid downtime for Kim Herd of Venture Travel.

‘One of the first bookings I made was for two couples travellingtogether – it was $60,000 worth of cruising.’

She says the luxury cruise travels through the Tuamotus, an area she knew nothing about before attending an educational Tahiti Tourisme webinar.

‘I learned about the Tuamotu Islands through that and I have sold them since, so it was invaluable to me.’