Mission Statment

'To be market leaders in the educational sector (including special interest groups), delivering consistently high quality tours with excellent safety practices at affordable prices'

Our People

NZET is owned by Adele Marsden and Ian Turner, a couple who are passionate and excited about sharing the New Zealand experience with visitors. Joining the team is Marketing & Operations Manager, Vanessa Harmens, and their team of dedicated and trained tour managers.

Adele Marsden – Operations Director

Adele’s exceptional people-skills and in-depth knowledge and experience of the travel industry form a sound basis for managing NZET. A Kiwi from Wellington, Adele worked for 15 years in the outbound tour operators industry based in London, becoming a tour manager and later operations supervisor and manager for Contiki Tours in Europe and Russia. Her role included selection and training of tour managers and drivers, and instilling a strong customer focus to ensure clients experienced a holiday that exceeded their expectations.

Adele’s strengths led to her promotion to operations director at the significantly larger sister company, Trafalgar Tours. She and her team of 10 managed nearly 300,000 passengers a year, with 300 coaches on the road at once – all great experience for her role at NZET.

Email: adele@nzet.com
Phone: +64 7 571 0796
  

Ian Turner – Managing Director

Scottish-born Ian brings years of business experience to NZET. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England and became a partner in a London accountancy practice. After setting up his own practice he was appointed non-executive director of a London-based tour operator, advising that company during a period of exceptional growth. Ian also has a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) qualification, and has worked in Rome and England as an English teacher.

Since settling with Adele in New Zealand, Ian’s other roles have included being treasurer of Tourism Bay of Plenty, President for the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce for 4 years and is currently Chairman of the Council of Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Email: ian@nzet.com
Phone: +64 7 571 0796

Vanessa Harmens – Marketing & Operations Manager

After nine years living in Australia and the UK, where she worked as the E-Commerce Operations Manager for the British Tourist Board, Vanessa returned to her New Zealand roots and joined NZET.

Sport and travel-loving Vanessa oversees the operations for our student tours and manages NZET marketing.  With her energy and fun loving nature, Vanessa fosters  excellent relationships with NZ tourism operators, the NZ Education sector and local NZ high schools.

Email: vanessa@nzet.com
Phone: +64 7 571 0796

Click here to meet our NZET Tour Managers.