New Zealander Selected For Elite Society of Travel Guides

New Zealander Selected For Elite Global Society of Travel Guides
 
Jean-Michel Jefferson of Ahipara Luxury Travel has been selected as New Zealand’s only member of an elite global society of guides.
 
He has been made a Founding Fellow of the Shackleton and Selous Society.
 
The society has been launched in New York in association with the exclusive Leading Hotels of the World. But it is not a hotel marketing group. It is an invitation-only society and rare global network of elite travel guides considered to deliver the ultimate in personalized travel experiences to their guests.
 
Leading Hotels seized the chance to be connected to the society and offer its members some exclusive travel opportunities. Other companies dealing with high end travellers are keen to connect with the society too.
 
Jean-Michel says his fellowship will help focus the international spotlight on New Zealand as a high end tourism destination.
 
While he already knew some of the other fellows through an informal international network, Jean Michel says it was what the society represented that convinced him to join.
 
“As guides we take discerning guests to remote and untouched wilderness areas, where we have developed deep and respectful relationships with the people and the land over many years,” he says.
 
“There is no compromise in our approach. For example, a group from Eastern Europe that has just been in the country met with New Zealanders who have shown them how to set a hinaki (trap) for eels, to cook in a hangi and to dive and fish around a volcano, to fly fish in the upper reaches of some of the best trout streams and Extreme 4WD through the mountains.
 
“During past trips clients have spent time with the country’s pre-eminent pinot noir winemaker, a rally driving legend, a superb landscape artist and highly experienced aviators.
 
“New Zealand has such a lot to offer, but it is vital that quality is not compromised if we are to retain a reputation for the best in experiential travel.”
 
Cathy Ellis, the general manager of The Shackleton and Selous Society, says as well as their extraordinary levels of local knowledge, the Fellows are renowned as passionate conservationists, erudite historians and perceptive anthropologists.
 
“Jean-Michel was one of the first we spoke to about joining the society,” Cathy says.
 
The founding 18 Fellows have led tours to some of the world’s most remote and remarkable destinations including: Antarctica and Alaska, Eastern and Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Turkey, Mongolia, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan and Patagonia and the Galapagos Islands.
 
The society is named after legendary explorers Ernest Shackleton and Frederick Selous. Pioneering explorer Ernest Shackleton spent two Antarctic winters living beneath upturned lifeboats to survive the ferocity of the South Pole’s climate. Englishman Frederick Selous was one of Africa’s great hunters and gentleman philosopher in his adopted homeland.
 
Jean-Michel, who has a French mother and English father, came to New Zealand after meeting his New Zealand-born wife Karen when they were in high flying corporate careers in London. They worked in Russia – Jean-Michel is fluent in the language - before Karen convinced Jean-Michel to bring up their young family in her home country.
 
The couple set up Ahipara after Jean-Michel fell in love with the New Zealand lifestyle and outdoors and wanted to hang up his corporate suit for as much time as possible. They have put together trips for parties ranging from NZ$5000 to nearly NZ$1 million.
 
“The itineraries are usually complicated and the travellers expect consistently high standards during their time in New Zealand,” Jean-Michel says.  
 
A decade later, Jean-Michel is highly regarded in the international travel industry. Last year alone he was selected as a Conde Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialist 2012 and named on American Express magazine’s Travel & Leisure A-List 2012.
 
ENDS

© Scoop Media