TECNZ Board of Directors
2024 – 2026

Back row: Geoff Yee, Mark Ma, Mark Badland, Debbie Summers, John Gregory, Matin Langford
Front row: Brendan Davies, Trish May, Lynda Keene, Amanda Linklater, Scott Mehrtens
Absent: Eve Lawrence & Greg Marett

Chair

Scott Mehrtens (Inbound)– Leisure Time Tours Group

Scott is the Managing Director of Leisure Time Tours Group which also  owns and operates Travel Time South Pacific and AgriTravel International. He completed his training in Hospitality and Tourism Management in 1991, and has been working for Leisure Time Tours since 1997. He travels often to key inbound markets including Australia, USA, UK and various parts of Europe giving him current in-market knowledge and perspective to share with the TECNZ Board and the wider tourism industry. Scott has been on the TECNZ board since 2017.

Vice Chairs

Brendan Davies – (Allied) Millennium Hotels and Resorts

Brendan Davies is the Director of International Sales and Marketing for Millennium Hotels & Resorts. Millennium Hotels owns, leases or operates 20 hotels across New Zealand under the Millennium, Grand Millennium, M Social, Copthorne and Kingsgate brands. He started his tourism career in 1986 at Guthreys Tours before working for Horizon Holidays and then for 10 years as GM – Asia, for Contract Pacific.  He started his hotel career as International Sales Manager at Rydges Hotels before joining Millennium Hotels where he has been for the last 15 years. The role oversees all Sales and Marketing for the International wholesale market.

Representing Inbound Members

Geoff Yee – GSN Pacific

Geoff Yee is the Managing Director of GSN Pacific Limited, a qualified chartered accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Canterbury and worked for Ernst & Young from 1989-1992. Geoff has been involved in the New Zealand inbound tourism industry for 29 years and in 2000 established his own inbound tour company GSN Pacific Limited which has been operating for 20 years. While on the TECNZ Board Geoff has been on advocacy & relationship management strategic groups and also applying his knowledge and expertise as a chartered accountant to assist the TECNZ Board on accounting matters including GST issues and reviewing financial reports. Geoff has served on the TECNZ Board for the past 11 years and during this time Geoff also held the position of Vice President for 4 years and has been re -appointed again for 2020-22.

Greg Marett – AAT Kings

Greg Marett leads The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) Operations team of inbound guided holiday brands including AAT Kings, Trafalgar and Inspiring Journeys. With a childhood centered around a family jetboat business and young professional years spent delivering Contiki trips to youth travellers around NZ, Greg’s career has been shaped by local experience and global perspective provided by a number of domestic and international roles with TTC.

It’s this wide-reaching first-hand experience within the New Zealand tourism industry, paired with the depth of his global knowledge including best-practice from TTC’s network of global travel brands that pose Greg as an ideal candidate for the TECNZ Board. His life-long immersion and genuine passion in showcasing the best of New Zealand to our visitors is what now motivates Greg to share his expertise in a way that will add value to the tourism industry, and particularly coach touring and guided holiday businesses.

John Gregory – Terra Nova Coach Tours / The Green Spot

John is the Manager for Terra Nova Coach Tours. He has dedicated more than 25 years to the New Zealand Tourism industry working for a number of high profile organisations in various sectors of the industry including Coach Tour Operations, Accommodation Marketing and General Inbound Tour Operation. His current role focuses on the UK and European Markets and the vital connection to local issues including quality control of our wide range of tourism product and support for our Department of Conservation and their involvement as a key tourism partner. He is a big advocate of YoungTEC and inspiring people to a career in tourism.

Mark Badland – Pacific Destinations New Zealand

Mark has over 23 years’ experience with Pacific Destinations and involvement in both Eastern and Western markets via multiple distribution channels. He started in 1997 as an Inbound Tour Consultant and has had the opportunity to progress via many roles and responsibilities within their business, resulting in his current position as Managing Director for both Pacific Destinations New Zealand and Australia.   He would like to be a part of the future planning for the tourism industry to ensure the value of Inbound Tour Operators continues to be seen.

Mark Ma – Master Travel Group

Mark is the Managing Director of Master Travel Group Limited in New Zealand and a director of Master Tour Group in Australia. Mark’s tourism career started in 1991 in the North of China after his education in the Beijing International Studies University. Before he migrated to New Zealand in 2000, he worked as an outbound tour operator in Beijing. Mark is full of passion for the tourism industry and a devoted servant of public interests. Mark is a cancer survivor and that trauma caused him to look at his life in new ways. This reflects in his spirituality, the meaning of life, and things that he values most. As a migrant, Mark regards NZ as his home now and would like to do as much he can to give back to the community. Mark has built up a lot of good friends and contacts in NZ, both personal and through his business life and is always searching for new opportunities in every aspect to enrich his life and those around him.

Debbie Summers – ID New Zealand

For over thirty years, Debbie has worked within the Destination Management sector and the wider cruise industry to both progress and advocate within national and international forums.

Having strong senior key relationships with the vast majority of the world’s cruise companies at the very highest of levels, she moved to New Zealand 17 years back to work for ID Tours Ltd, NZs largest cruise ground handler based in Auckland. She is responsible for the cruise department which makes up over 80% of the Company. Debbie has expanded NZ shore excursion programmes and ship deployment/itineraries by bringing together and working closely with many key regional cruise tourism stakeholders including tourism suppliers.

Debbie sits on the Board of New Zealand Cruise Association (15 years, Chairman for 7 years). Debbie also sat on the Advisory to the Tourism Future Taskforce Board established in New Zealand during Covid. She continues to sit on the Board of Tourism Industry Aotearoa New Zealand’s for the past 5 years and is Vice-Chair of the globally recognised World’s Leading Ground Operators. Most recently she has been invited to sit on the Auckland Council City Advisory Panel and represents the tourism and cruise voice within this forum.

Debbie brings a wealth of global and national tourism advocacy to the table, being extremely well connected from the wharf to wellington, she has skin in the game, reality as well as aspiration are her focuses. Governance is a passion and with her current roles she promises to add to the strength of the inbound voice to each Board forum and high-level strategic meetings that she contributes to.

Karen Jefferson – Ahipara Travel

Since 2002, Karen Jefferson, has been a Director of Ahipara Limited. Responsible since the beginning for finance, systems and staff, Karen has designed and implemented some state of the art finance and itinerary IT applications. Together with her co-director, Jean-Michel, Karen has been instrumental in setting the strategy and redirecting the focus towards developing agency relationships and establishing an innovative focus on emerging markets.

Since Covid, Karen has been passionate about how to develop a sustainable tourism industry and is also currently a member of the Sustainability Reference Group with TIA. Karen is a true believer in the power of collaboration and hopes to have an impact on how we can improve the positive narrative around tourisms contribution to New Zealand.

Representing Allied Members

Martin Langford – Ngāi Tahu Tourism

With 20 years of experience in the NZ tourism industry, I have dedicated my career to promoting sustainable tourism growth practices and enhancing visitor experiences. Through my previous roles and current role as General Manager Sales for Ngai Tahu Tourism, I have successfully led numerous initiatives that align with TEC NZ’s mission of fostering tourism growth in export earnings.

My first five years in NZ tourism were operational and customer focused which gave me an extremely valuable foundation for my career in tourism sales. In my current role with Ngai Tahu Tourism, I oversee strategic planning, sales, product development and partnerships. The NTT sales whanau and I work closely with our inbound partners to achieve mutually beneficial results as overseas markets continue to return.

Trish May – New Zealand Travel Collective

Trish is the founder of the New Zealand Travel Collective, a sales representation service showcasing leading New Zealand hotels, activities and transport services to the travel trade.

Trish has been in the industry for over three decades having started in Rotorua with Tourism Rotorua and then Rainbow Springs & Farm Show. With a move to Auckland came the opportunity to establish a boutique marketing agency providing events management, sales, marketing and communications services to the tourism industry.

Trish is now based in Queenstown.

Current governance roles include; Board member of Destination Queenstown and Trustee on the Southern Lakes Trails. Previously, Trish served as National President of Skal International New Zealand (2018-20) and President of Skal International Queenstown (2020-23).

Co-opted Board Member

Narissa Phipps – First Light Travel (YoungTEC Chair)

Upon completion of her Psychology degree in the UK, Narissa embarked on a round the world trip landing in New Zealand for the first time in 2014. Falling in love with the endless natural beauty and kiwi culture she now proudly calls New Zealand home.

Narissa joined the inbound industry in 2016 as a New Zealand Travel Specialist and instantly got hooked. Having worked her way up to be a Team Leader, Manager and now CEO, she is living proof of the awesome growth opportunities that the industry has to offer.

New to the YoungTEC Board in 2023, Narissa is excited to combine her passion for the industry and helping young people grow.