Our People

New Zealand Educational Tours (NZET) is owned by Adele Marsden and Ian Turner, a couple who are passionate and excited about sharing the New Zealand experience with visitors. Joining the team is Marketing & Operations Manager, Vanessa Harmens, and their team of dedicated and trained tour managers.

Adele Marsden – Operations Director

Adele’s exceptional people-skills and in-depth knowledge and experience of the travel industry form a sound basis for managing NZET. A Kiwi from Wellington, Adele worked for 15 years in the outbound tour operators industry based in London, becoming a tour manager and later operations supervisor and manager for Contiki Tours in Europe and Russia. Her role included selection and training of tour managers and drivers, and instilling a strong customer focus to ensure clients experienced a holiday that exceeded their expectations.

Adele’s strengths led to her promotion to operations director at the significantly larger sister company, Trafalgar Tours. She and her team of 10 managed nearly 300,000 passengers a year, with 300 coaches on the road at once – all great experience for her role at NZET.

Email: adele@nzet.co.nz
Phone: +64 7 571 0796
  

Ian Turner – Financial and Marketing Director

Scottish-born Ian brings a wealth of business experience to NZET. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England and became a partner in a London accountancy practice. After setting up his own practice he was appointed non-executive director of a London-based tour operator, advising that company during a period of exceptional growth. Ian also has a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) qualification, and has worked in Rome and England as an English teacher.

Since settling with Adele in New Zealand, Ian’s financial roles in the public sector have included treasurer of Tourism Bay of Plenty and president of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and spent five years with accountancy firm KPMG before joining NZET.

Vanessa Harmens – Marketing & Operations Manager

After nine years living in Australia and the UK, where she worked as the E-Commerce Operations Manager for the British Tourist Board, Vanessa returned to her New Zealand roots and joined NZET.

Sport and travel-loving Vanessa oversees the day to day running of NZET’s tours, manages the marketing for NZET, and goes out on tour as an NZET tour manager.  She also fosters relationships with NZET’s service suppliers and develops ways to enhance the company’s Green Globe focus.

Email: vanessa@nzet.co.nz
Phone: +64 7 571 0796

Click here to meet our NZET Tour Managers.