BUSINESS: Travelcafe broadens its horizons

Chris Gardner
The Tremain TravelCafe is expanding out of Hawke's Bay with the establishment of a "flagship" branch in Rotorua.
Managing director Greg Southcombe, who in partnership with Chris Tremain runs the business which combines travel advice with coffee and food, said the business had grown by 36 percent in the past year.
Mr Southcombe said the company, which has a travel cafe in both Heretaunga Street, Hastings and Dickens Street, Napier, was combining two Rotorua premises to create a branch on the corner of Tutanekai and Pukuatua streets.
"This will be our flagship location targeting the 580,000 in-bound tourists to Rotorua each year," he said.
"Rotorua is fractionally ahead of Queenstown in tourist numbers and behind only Auckland and Christchurch, who both enjoy high numbers due to their gateway airports."
The new branch, which will be given its look by Jeff Wornsop from Concordia in Hastings, will feature a travellers' cafe, internet cafe, travel clothing, books, guides and maps and a local bookings counter and fully licensed travel agency.
"Being a Hawke's Bay company we simply won't be able to help 'push' this region to our inbound customers in Rotorua and will certainly feature Hawke's Bay more prominently than any other region - we're unashamedly biased!"
Justin Smith, who was manager for the TravelCafe in Hastings, has moved with his family to Rotorua. Napier travel consultant Dale Watkins will take over as manager.
Julia Anderson, formerly of the Air New Zealand TravelCentre in Napier, has joined Napier's TravelCafe.
The company is also looking for staff for all three branches.
"It feels great to have developed an idea in Hawke's Bay and to now be taking it to the rest of New Zealand," Mr Southcombe said.
He said he had received enquiries from overseas, and other NZ centres, about the TravelCafe concept and, as a result, both he and Mr Tremain were looking at accelerating their expansion plans.
"We'll also be cutting the ribbon on our new in-bound website in July, developed and designed in Hastings," he said.
"We're targeting the more affluent broadband clients in the US, Australia and Europe with this site and I'm confident our unique and high-tech approach will attract a fruitful new client base, which will be served from our Hawke's Bay locations and by our local staff."
The company's presence on the internet has also grown, catering through its website for 18-24 year-olds heading off to US summer camps, medical professionals travelling to overseas posts and, on July 1, the company will launch a new page targeting the web-savvy Interactive Traveller in the UK, USA and Australia, designed by Tarver Graham of Hastings.
"We've designed a very advanced website using Flash technology and what will be a very intuitive and unique approach to booking travel, tours and accommodation throughout New Zealand from the other side of the world," Mr Southcombe said.
"Seventy-four percent of travellers to New Zealand arrive without arrangements pre-booked and we aim to help those people make their arrangements before they leave home, on our website."