Travel broker offers mobile service in the Bay
Golden Bay travel broker Dawn Beresford.. Photo: G Hindmarsh
It’s been two months since Dawn Beresford set up in the Bay as a mobile travel broker, licensed to the Travel Smart agency in Nelson.
She has already arranged bookings for people here on Contiki and walking expeditions to Europe, family weddings in Las Vegas, even one medical holiday to India. As a resident but without an office here, Dawn usually meets her clients, after the initial phone calls, by visiting them at their work, home or just as often their favourite local café.
“Sitting down and chatting, the old fashioned way, in a relaxed, no-pressure situation, I get a far better idea of what my clients actually want out of their holiday or trip abroad. That way I can quickly direct them to all the best options. You can spend hours and hours on the net trawling through international options, whereas I can often use my experience to guide clients to their best options very quickly. I can also handle things like travelling with animals or special visas.”
Dawn’s experience not only draws on her 14 years of experience in the travel industry - the last seven as a consultant for Flight Centre in Trafalgar St, Nelson - but having creative and varied jobs all her life. Many of Dawn’s “new” clients since going out on her own include not only Golden Bay residents who dealt with her during her Flight Centre time, but also residents from as far afield as Murchison and Greymouth.
Born in North Staffordshire, Dawn earned a degree in Tourism and Travel at Luton University before working at Madame Tussaud’s wax factory, where she made props for its shows and theme parks. After that she ice-skated for a living with the acclaimed Holidays on Ice, a time she remembers as her full-on travelling years.
In addition to her enthusiasm and obvious passion for the job, Dawn also cites her travel experience as a crucial advantage. And rightly so. She has in her time taken cycling tours through the Cote d’Or of France, tours to the Middle East, including Dubai, Oman and Egypt, and hosted cruises from New York to Bermuda, and there are few regions in the world she hasn’t visited. It was while on an overland trip through Africa that she met in Kenya her partner-to-be Blair Fraser, who was born and raised in Takaka. After Africa, the two took off to drive from Beijing to London, but right in the middle of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert they got news that Blair’s father, Noel Fraser, had died here in Takaka.
“We turned straight around and drove for Ulaanbaatar where we could get on a plane, getting home several days later just in time for the funeral. It all seemed like I was meant to move here.”
The couple set up home in One Spec Road earlier this year after Blair took a job at Fonterra’s Takaka factory as a mechanic.
Comments Dawn on her enterprise: “Setting up like this has always been something I’ve wanted to do, and now it’s all come together. My aim now is to offer Golden Bay people some great holiday deals with some professional and personalised service.”
Contact Dawn on 525 6011 or dawn.ts@xtra.co.nz
Gerard Hindmarsh
