GOOD Awaits
Our Guests
Episode 1: Anna Pollock - What is Regenerative Tourism
Anna Pollock, Founder of Conscious.Travel, has 48 years’ experience in tourism as an independent consultant, strategist, international speaker and change agent and is now an acclaimed thought leader in the emerging field of regenerative tourism. Anna’s work has spanned decades and continents. During the 1990s, Anna established herself as a thought leader on the strategic implications of the Internet and she co-developed one of the first multi-purpose destination management systems. She also prepared one of the first reports on the impact of climate change for the Canadian tourism industry in 2007. Her strength is her ability to see the whole “big picture,” to ask difficult questions and to help others make sense of their rapidly and dramatically changing world.
Since 2010, Anna has focused on investigating emergent, alternative models for the tourism sector that would enable it to shift from extraction to regeneration. Anna influenced the first ever regional tourism strategy in New Zealand that integrates regenerative principles, and has since done extensive work in New Zealand with the Department of Conservation and the Tourism Futures Taskforce. Anna recently co-led an online educational programme, with Michelle Holliday, for 7 regional tourism organisations and 120 participants in New Zealand, designed to enable destinations to understand and apply regenerative principles.
Episode 2: Kristin Dunne - Courageous Leadership & The DNA of Place
Kristin Dunne is the Tumuaki | Chief Executive of Tāpoi Te Moananui ā Toi | Tourism Bay of Plenty and has worked in the tourism industry for the past seven years. Kristin is a Fellow of Marketing and holds a Bachelor of Business Studies. Prior to the tourism industry, Kristin held senior management roles at Vodafone and Woosh and has extensive marketing experience gained within DB Breweries, ASB BANK and Television New Zealand. Kristin is passionate about helping to create a sustainable future for the visitor economy in New Zealand that enhances our visitors’ experience and local communities. Tourism Bay of Plenty’s Strategy ‘Te Hā Tapoi’ is recognised as an exemplar within the sector as a framework for regenerative Destination Management.
Episode 3: Nadine Toe Toe - Change a Town Through Tourism
Nadine Toe Toe is one of three Directors of Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours, a whānau-owned and operated tourism business located in the heart of Ngāti Manawa Tribal Lands in Murupara, with a vision to “Change a town through tourism”. Although located in her husband’s tribal lands, Nadine is of Ngai Tai descent, and has harnessed her extensive expertise in tourism, social responsibility, and community engagement to create a unique experience that gives back to the tamariki (children) of the area and through local schools creates opportunities for travel, growth and development.
Under Nadine’s leadership Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours won the 2019 NZ Tourism Industry Awards’ community engagement category – on authentic cultural experiences, creating opportunities for young people, and hosting the National Geographic Photo Camp initiative. Most recently, Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours has secured Provincial Development Unit Funding to reposition their tourism lodge as a Youth Training Facility during the domestic tourism low season, until international tourism recovers. Three 12-week long Manawa Ora Rangatahi programmes will be run onsite at Kohutapu Lodge, and will have a collaborative approach with iwi, hapū, community and other service providers within the immediate and wider region and will become an on-ramp for rangatahi to move to employment or training programmes.
Episode 4: Michelle Holliday - Thrivability & Living Systems Thinking
For the past two decades, Michelle Holliday has inspired with her thought leadership and vision. As a writer, presenter, facilitator and researcher, her work centers around “thrivability” — a set of perspectives and practices based on a view of organizations and communities as dynamic living systems. To that end, she brings people together and helps them discover ways they can feel more alive, connect more meaningfully with each other, and serve life more powerfully and effectively through their work. Her research and experience are brought together in the highly acclaimed book, The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World.
Michelle spent the first part of her career in brand strategy, the second part of her career focused on employee engagement, now she combines both disciplines, accompanying a community of pioneering and purpose-driven clients. With a Master’s Degree in International Marketing and a Bachelor’s Degree in Russian Studies, Michelle has lived in 19 cities around the world, She now lives in Montreal with her husband and two children.
Episode 5: Trent Yeo - Designing Tourism for Change
Trent Yeo is Executive Director of Ziptrek Ecotours in Queenstown and set up the business 11 years ago. Ziptrek is an adventure ecotourism zipline business that utilises the power of adventure to help create meaningful memories of place. Ziptrek is long time communicator about The Natural Step and is now a Future-Fit Pioneer. Ziptrek’s business model assists tens of thousands of guests to learn about sustainability but produces less than two person’s annual equivalent in carbon, and then offsets to zero.
Trent is also on the board of Tourism Industry Aotearoa and was part of the Tourism Futures Taskforce Advisory Group for New Zealand. He is now a retired TEDxQueenstown event organiser and once ventured to Antarctica to work on TEDxScottBase. Trent is of Perenakan Malay and Chinese descent. Whilst born in Australia he is a long time resident of New Zealand, has Canadian business partners, a UK born wife and a kiwi daughter, who fairly often says that he’s, “a legend”. Trent is driven by the investment in humans as the driver for change in sustainability.
Episode 6: Sarni Hart - Fostering Connection to People and Place
Sarni Hart is the director of Coromandel Adventures, a foundation trustee & treasurer for the Coromandel Kauri Dieback Forum and treasurer for the Upper Coromandel Forest & Bird Branch. Environmental sustainability and care is a core value of Coromandel Adventures, and Sarni is an advocate for increased awareness of the impact of the visitor economy, with a primary focus on protecting local forests from infection with Kauri Dieback. This has included initiating a visitor contribution programme, enabling visitors to make donations toward supporting local initiatives.
Keenly aware that the industry relies on the environment to attract visitors, Sarni is now looking to be part of a positive change which encourages tourism businesses to contribute towards local environmental projects that strengthen and support the ecology of the region rather than extract from it. With the support of the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), the Department of Conservation, and the local iwi, Patukirikiri, Sarni is embarking on a community project with the intention on establishing a long term management plan between the local community and DOC with the vision of restoration of a local site of cultural and historic significance to the town.
Episode 7: Eliza Raymond - Nurturing Global Citizens
Eliza Raymond is the co-founder and director of operations at GOOD Travel, a New Zealand-based social enterprise working globally to transform the tourism industry into a force for GOOD. Eliza holds a Master of Tourism from the University of Otago and is currently carrying out her PhD in Tourism Management at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington with the support of a Wellington Doctoral Scholarship.
She also serves as senior advisor to RISE Travel Institute and teaches entrepreneurship, innovation and social change at the University for Peace established by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Eliza was a finalist for the 2019 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards as well as the winner of the travel category for the New Zealand Good People Awards.
Episode 8: Porina McLeod - Thriving in Collaboration
Porina McLeod grew up in Tauranga and Mt Maunganui, pursued a musical career, performing across the country for over 25 years. When her voice changed suddenly, she embarked on a journey to redirect her path and ended up on the ocean on a stand up paddle board. East Coast Paddlers was founded by Porina’s cousin and his wife, passionate water people avidly involved with the local ocean sports community. Porina eventually took over the business in 2016. Now known as Mauao Adventures, they offer stand up paddle boarding, waka ama lessons and guided walks of their mountain, Mauao.
Porina also facilitates healing processes for herself and others through her mahi and her connection to the elements and Te Ao Maori. Mauao Adventures’ core purpose is to connect people with the moana, the whenua and tangata whenua.
Episode 9: Mandy Bell - "Education, Enable, Inspire"
Mandy Bell is the co-owner of Criffel Station, the 2000ha deer farm in Wanaka, and is a founding member, Chairperson and Programme Director of WAI Wanaka. She is a successful entrepreneur and advisor with a doctorate in veterinary science, and a strong background in farming, information systems, management and agribusiness.
Criffel Station’s diverse businesses have evolved to include a agri-tourism, including; events in the 1940’s woolshed and stunning Stone Hut Terrace, accommodation in the authentic farm cottages, and behind the farm gate experiences designed around the themes of taste, learn or discover.
It is Mandy’s belief that it is necessary to understand what we know, what we don’t know, and the gaps in the science and data, before working with relevant stakeholders to create a roadmap to deliver on the long-term vision. She brings a ‘nature-based solutions’ mindset, a whole of community approach, and a passion for innovative, future thinking which is demonstrated through her work nationally and locally.
Episode 10: Lee-Anne Jago - Purpose, Passion and Community
Lee-Anne Jago has 20 years' experience in guiding, instructing and managing adventure tourism enterprises and has also competed in waka ama at both national and international levels.Waka Abel Tasman is owned and operated by Lee-Anne and her husband Todd, offering waka experiences in the Abel Tasman within a cultural framework of Maori tikanga and world view.
Waka Abel Tasman the first waka business in Aotearoa to be externally audited under Adventure Activities Regulations (2016) and is a certified adventure company. Lee Anne and Todd’s community is at the heart of everything they do and they are passionate about uplifting their community.