Christchurch Based business wins National Award

Christchurch Based business wins National Award

A small Christchurch based tour company has beaten out over 4000 other tourism operators to win a unique traveller voted award.

Haka Tours has won the 2013 Supreme Award in its category edging out established players like Kiwi Experience and Stray bus, in the highly sought after awards.

The annual Rankers awards are unique in that votes and reviews are gathered over a one year period and a portion of these are done face to face by the Rankers team who personally hit the road and interview tourists.

This is the second year the company has won the honour and Haka Tours director Ryan Sanders says “the supreme award is a reflection of our commitment to give our customers the best possible experience while in New Zealand. It also backs up our strong belief that small group, guided tours, complete with an expert guide is what a growing number of visitors want”

Starting up six years ago, www.rankers.co.nz has fast become New Zealand’s most established Independent Travel Review website with over 35,000 reviews. Rankers is owned and operated by locals, Nick Morrison and Cymen Crick.

Crick says, "We meet travellers person to person, as they explore NZ and ask them about their experiences here. All tourism companies for each category are eligible. No-one pays to participate, everyone is in”

Sanders goes on to say “While all awards are nice to win, this one is special because of the credibility that comes with a Rankers review”

The award caps a remarkable year of achievement for the young company which was a finalist at the 2013 Canterbury Business Awards, while director Ryan Sanders was recognised earlier in the year as a finalist in the prestigious 2013 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award, for young entrepreneur.

Its adventure and snow tours are unable to be purchased via travel agents as the business elected to go direct to customers via its website, www.hakatours.com a strategy that has paid dividends for the business, as it not only ‘cuts out the middle man’, but allows it’s team to provide high quality, personalised service to its customers from when they first make an enquiry to when they are providing post tour feedback.

ENDS

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