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Discover Travel celebrates 25 years!

Discover Travel celebrated its 25th birthday in October 2024.

So what was happening back in October 1999? Well, Helen Clark was about a month away from winning an election and becoming prime minister and the last dry electorates in NZ (Eden, Roskill and Tawa) finally voted to end prohibition laws and allow alcohol sales.

What about us? Adventure Travel, as we were then known, was very different in those days. The agency was mostly selling bargain overland journeys on trucks across Africa to backpackers. Broadband internet was in its infancy, Nokia cellphones ruled but smart phones were still 8 years away, so travel still had a pretty analogue feel to it. Doorstep sized guidebooks like the Lonely Planet were still in common use as were actual paper maps. Simpler times!

In the last 25 years, we’ve evolved the business into becoming Christchurch’s hub for more discerning travellers. A lot of destinations have either come into fashion or dropped out of fashion in that time. We’ve often joked that there’s a dinner party or BBQ that happens somewhere in Christchurch about this time of year where the decision is made as to where everyone’s going the following year. Last year everyone apparently decided they were going to Portugal in 2024. If you are the host of this influential gathering, please can we have an invite to your party so we can be prepared!

Speaking of influence, it’s clear that social media is starting to have an impact on travel trends and even on destinations themselves; if you’ve been on holiday and witnessed the unusual antics of influencers or people capturing content for Instagram you’ll know what we mean!

We like to think though that there were quite a few destinations that we were the first to pioneer, so our clients got there before the crowds arrived – like Antarctica, Croatia, Vietnam, Cuba and Iceland.  We did also send a lot of people to places that are currently not really viable – like Russia, Iran, Syria & Lebanon. Our group trip to Iran was particularly exciting!

It’s obviously getting a little harder now to find destinations away from crowds, but we’re not giving up! We’re taking 32 people to the ‘Stans on our 2 escorted tours in 2025 and Peter reckons that Georgia, Azerbaijan & Armenia will the next ‘must visit’ destinations after that. Ian thinks Mexico & Costa Rica are both long overdue being explored by more Kiwis, so let’s see who’s right!

To mark our special birthday, we did recently launch the brand new Discover Travel website, which was a real labour of love. As part of that process, we designed a map to show where our team have been and we realized that no-one has yet been to Bhutan, Madagascar or Saudi Arabia, so they might be the next destinations for someone in the team!

We did ask each member of the the team two questions.

  1. Which were the most memorable travel destinations that they’d personally visited
  2. The most memorable trip they’d booked for their clients:

Juliet – National Parks of Southwestern USA // reuniting a family of 8 after Covid in a luxury villa on Zakynthos

Janine – Travelling entirely over land & sea from Birmingham to Brisbane // an Ethiopian adventure

Linda –  Sri Lanka //  the “Lost City” Trek in Colombia

Peter –  Cycling in Albania and Montenegro // exploring Iran

Ian –   South Georgia Island enroute to Antarctica // a Virgin Galactic ticket to Space!

25 years ago, a lot of commentators predicted that the internet would spell the end for travel agents but for us, it’s actually been the opposite. Technology has revolutionized how we research and book travel – it’s actually made our job much easier in many ways and we can work more efficiently. 2023 & 2024 have been our most successful years ever, and 2025 is on track to be much the same.

For that, and for all your loyal support over the last 25 years – we’d like to sincerely thank our valued clients. Small businesses like ours thrive on referrals, and you have been incredibly kind in trusting us to look after not just your own travel plans, but also those of your friends and families.

Here’s to Discover Travel’s next 25 years!

Ian, Peter & the DT team, October 2024

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