We have a reputation in the market for creativity, innovation, flexibility, openness and friendliness. These attributes are exhibited by all our staff. Ours is a complex small business and we believe in empowering staff to make decisions and establish their own relationships with key suppliers, agents and markets. We are not a "top down" organisation with strict segementation, but rather a flexible "matrix" based on mutual respect. Therefore every staff member profiled here is highly capable and will have a multi-faceted role and expertise in the following:
- expertise in our subject matter, luxury and experiential travel in New Zealand
- expertise in developing and supporting key markets
- direct responsibility for their clients while they are in-country
- expertise in certain outbound markets
- linguistic and cultural ability
Most importantly, our people care, they care about our clients, they care about doing the very best possible whatever the circumstances.
Andrea Victoria - Latin Markets Manager
Andrea, originally from Argentina, has been living and working in New Zealand for a number of years. She is truly passionate about people, about customer service, and about New Zealand as a destination. Already widely traveled, she has an excellent "feel" for luxury tourism, as one would expect from a Psychology graduate!
Andrea is responsible for our Latin markets - South and Central America, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. She is also training as a VIP...
Marina Kovandina - Russian Market Manager
Marina is responsible for Russian-speaking and East European markets. A Russian national married to a Maori New Zealander, Marina has extensive experience in both outbound and inbound tourism. Extensively travelled around New Zealand, Marina understands how to manage this destination for East Europeans, and is responsible for our market education strategy for those markets. This encompasses knowledge and materials transfer to agents and media. In the absence of official...
Karen Jefferson - Director
Karen divides her time between the family and the systems side of the business. Responsible for finance, systems and staff, Karen has designed and implemented some state of the art finance and itinerary IT applications. We now have systems which can be accessed from anywhere in the world and can produce fully costed custom itineraries within an hour. Together with Jean-Michel, Karen has been instrumental in setting our strategy, in redirecting our focus towards agency...
Jean-Michel Jefferson - Director
Jean-Michel Jefferson is the founder of Ahipara Luxury Travel. Educated at various schools in North Africa and the Middle East, then Rugby School, and the universities of Exeter and Sheffield, Jean-Michel spent 9 years with Price Waterhouse as a Management Consultant and Aviation Strategist. His last position was Director of Corporate Finance and Head of the Aviation Group in Moscow. He speaks English, French, Russian and has an understanding of Arabic and...
