Tourism group's rebranding part of a pledge to do ‘business for good’

The rebranding to New Zealand tourism group Wayfare as RealNZ is part of bold vision that Chief Executive Stephen England-Hall describes as doing “business for good”.

Speaking at the brand launch at Manapouri, Fiordland, England-Hall advised “for us, business for good is about creating enduring value through conservation, that is enabled by tourism.

“Conservation has always been part of what we do but we’re committing to making it our focus. It’s an ambitious vision, but the world has changed and so have our priorities. What’s more, we know that ‘business for good’ is good for our business.”

Previously the Chief Executive of Tourism New Zealand, earlier this year England-Hall joined the Wayfare group of tourism and ski companies, which includes Real Journeys, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Treble Cone, Go Orange and the International Antarctic Centre.

Speaking to guests at a launch event on a cruise across Lake Manapouri - where the tourism business was originally founded in 1954 - England-Hall shared RealNZ’s vision for the future, advising “RealNZ continues to honour the legacy of founders Les and Olive Hutchins and their belief that tourism and conservation work hand in hand to sustain each other.”

The move had started with the recent appointment of New Zealand’s first tourism chief conservation officer - Paul Norris, to lead a dedicated sustainability team.

Explaining that the name change to RealNZ had been easy, England-Hall noted “RealNZ tells a story of the things we care about - real people, real places, real experiences.

“It represents a more simplified, integrated business than Wayfare had become - with a common purpose, to do real good.”

England-Hall said like most New Zealand businesses, the group had needed to regroup and adapt to be successful under very different market conditions, after the market had gone through a fundamental change.

He went on to say “a period of acquisitions had led to complexity and inefficiency over the last few years, and with the market changing, left us with an unsustainable model. It also created a cluttered mix of brands and businesses, which were difficult for our visitors to find and navigate and for our teams to share their expertise and work across.”

To celebrate the start of RealNZ, a ‘RealNZ for good’ day would see each of RealNZ’s employees offer up their unique skills to assist New Zealand’s environment or community for at least one workday a year.

England-Hall added “Conservation work already takes place during the course of some of our team’s workdays, but this would see at least 1000 additional days donated for conservation or community project work.”

England-Hall said the change to RealNZ is largely a digital transformation and that rebranding would only be done when vessels and coaches are due for repainting.

While Cardrona Alpine Resort, Treble Cone and the International Antarctic Centre maintain their individual brands as RealNZ experiences, England-Hall said there would be considerable efficiencies in bringing all the tourism brands under one umbrella.

Established in 1954, RealNZ is a group of tourism and ski businesses based in the south of the South Island of New Zealand.

Images: RealNZ's brand launch event (top) and the RealNZ team at the event, (below, from left): Vedant Sharma,Laura Dawson, Stephen England-Hall, Sarah McLeod-Young and Tarsh Mason.