She has owned the Broadway Ave travel agency under different names for 12 years. But she does not want this to be a tale of woe but of the support she has received, the agency's ability to pivot with this support and that she and her staff have worked tirelessly.
Support came from the Regional Business Partners team at CEDA, who approached her to see if she needed help and were able to provide access to Covid-19 business advisory funding.
She was able to employ life coach Lauren Parsons to get her through the impact of the postponement of international travel on her and her staff. "Without [Parsons] I probably would have walked away from the business."
Mike Clark from Think Right worked with Dunwell's staff as they moved from sales roles to mitigating risk and dealing with cancellations while not knowing if their jobs were secure.
In March 2020, Dunwell employed eight staff, now she has two. The six were either made redundant or left as they found new employment.
Seven months before lockdown, Dunwell opened a Feilding helloworld. It took six months to set up, then there were seven months of trading and six months post-Covid trading but no income. The Feilding agency was closed last September.
Pre-Covid, the domestic market was 2-3 per cent of her business, it's risen to 7-8 per cent.
Dunwell says the impact on her business has been massive but the positives are that travel did need a reset, both environmentally and economically.
Before the global pandemic, there were 94 million seats flying on commercial aircraft. That was a lot of emissions and fuel being burnt, Dunwell says.
An economic reset was also needed. "Travel had become too cheap and there was no yield left."
The agency is now more service-based selling a product and adding a service fee, which has also increased transparency for clients.
Apart from the emotional impact on the team, the required restructure and the uncertainty of closed borders, she says, she and her staff have done alright.
"It's been a pretty tough 15 months but I think we are finally looking to come out the other side."
The Manawatū support network has been amazing, as has her landlord, and she's received support from suppliers.
Dunwell and her two staff have received scholarships from the Manawatū Chamber of Commerce and UCOL. They've just finished their first paper of a New Zealand Diploma in Business. It's a two-year part-time commitment.
"UCOL is an absolute gold mine here, I didn't realise how much support they give their student population and the talented people that work there are amazing."
Dunwell, who has been in the industry 15 years, says the value of a travel agent is now more important than ever, in part because more companies are based overseas, in part because of Covid.
"It's a lot harder travelling post-Covid than pre-Covid, you need to know a lot," Dunwell says.
"We have the worst accent in the world to be understood by the rest of the world."
She says her business is reliant on government decisions, vaccination rates, and airlines deciding to once again fly to New Zealand.
People are booking trips to Australia and Rarotonga for the end of 2021 and starting to book long haul for late 2022.
The mother of 11-year-old twins says she wouldn't have chosen for Covid to come but she can now see some benefits. "Covid gave me the work-life balance that I've been working 10 years to try to get."
