When David Kennedy walks out the Stanley St doors of Destination Queenstown for the last time on October 24, it will be just one month shy of his 10-year anniversary with the organisation charged with marketing Queenstown as the tourist destination in New Zealand.
In 1998, Mr Kennedy was tempted to Queenstown from Wellington, where he had been working for Tourism Wellington.
Having organised the WinterFestival in the 1990s, he already had contacts in the resort and the opportunity to sit at the helm of Destination Queenstown - then 15 years old - was too good to turn down, he said.
In 1998, DQ boasted five full-time and three part-time staff and visitors to Queenstown numbered 861,000.
Ten years on, DQ now has 11 full-time staff and two contracted positions, and visitor numbers have almost doubled, to about 1.5 million per annum.
Destination Queenstown's achievements in the past decade are no mean feat and, while he is proud of the results, he says he's also humbled.
"From my perspective, it's been quite humbling to wake up every day in this role.
"It's quite an honour to be the guy in charge of tourism marketing for Queenstown."
The announcement Mr Kennedy was stepping down came on Tuesday night at DQ's AGM in Queenstown, shocking all of those present, but the reaction since had been "amazing", he said.
"A few of them have said 'you can't leave', which is nice.
"There were some nice compliments that people paid personally - in a lot of ways, those are the things I'll take away, from people telling me I'll be missed [it makes me think], maybe I've done a good job."
THE CHALLENGES
They are compliments which are well-deserved, with Mr Kennedy seeing Queenstown tourism through some of the biggest and toughest times the resort has faced.
There have been plenty of challenges along the way, beginning with the 1999 floods - which happened almost a year to the day after he began.
"The biggest tourism blip was the 1999 flood . . . that was a pretty challenging time, coming as it did just before the summer season.
"The television coverage made it look like Queenstown was under 6m of water - we were having to deal with the travel industry around the world saying `I heard Queenstown is flooded'."
While that challenge was specific to Queenstown, the resort was still affected in 2001, when, on September 11, the world changed.
When terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in New York, Queenstown was hosting the Inbound Tour Operators Conference.
"Everything changed that day. We were asking ourselves what's going to happen to the future of our tourism industries."
In what was somewhat of a double-whammy, at the same time, Ansett Australia collapsed, he said.
"Air New Zealand bought it and then it went under at the same time as September 11.
"Then there was Sars. I suppose the main thing to remember through all of that . . . is there's a lot of maturity in Queenstown.
"People understand when something goes wrong in the world that affects tourism, that it won't last forever.
"Queenstown is quite resilient. We've been through tough times before."
THE HIGHLIGHTS
Despite the challenges, there had also been plenty of highlights, the biggest of which was working with Queenstown's tourism operators, he said.
"It's true for New Zealand operators, but particularly in Queenstown, you won't find more passionate people willing to go the extra mile.
"Observing that in action and watching how they treat customers and care about their customers, working with them as a team . . . that's a real highlight."
Mr Kennedy said one of the challenges of being a Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) was essentially being an "umbrella marketer of the destination".
There was a range of stakeholders who often expected or wanted more from the RTO.
"The difficulty is trying to please everyone and understanding that you can't, because your job is not actually to market their product; it's to market the destination.
"There is an overlap in there somewhere. The challenge is trying to keep everyone happy.
"You're also spending public money and there's a huge expectation that it will be applied the right way."
THE TEAM
He said he considered Destination Queenstown to be "lucky", in that it had a unique structure, working to deliver a business plan to keep "everyone as happy as possible".
"There's a board of directors and a strategic review board - a good double-checking system.
"A lot of other regions . . . are jealous of our structure. It's fair and it's transparent."
While the way DQ was set up may be one of its greatest advantages, it was the people working for the organisation and those working with it who had made it so successful, he said.
"Amazing people have given up their time, voluntarily, to be directors or chairmen of the board.
"It's had amazing people working . . . which often people don't see.
"It's true for every other operator in Queenstown who often work seven days a week . . . they are full of passion and belief, but in saying that, if you don't have a mayor and a council that's supportive, then your tourism organisation is in trouble.
"I know that people jealously regard Queenstown because of the way it works together, but that's always a fragile structure.
"Only one of those elements needs to fall over and you get yourself in trouble."
THE FUTURE
Looking forward, Mr Kennedy said he can see challenges on the horizon for Destination Queenstown, an organisation charged with being the "single, neutral point of contact for Queenstown tourism" - not least of which will be questions over its funding.
A controversial $1 million extension of DQ's commercial rate levy, which will see a greater marketing push into Australia, will not be enough to secure Queenstown's position across the Tasman, he said.
"The major challenge will be our Australia marketing.
"Obviously, we just doubled our marketing budget to Australia . . . the challenge is to actually get some marketing, given other marketing activity under way, that actually has some cut-through in a really cluttered Australian market.
"[A million dollars] doesn't go a long way in Australia.
"I think funding will also be an issue for Destination Queenstown, particularly [with] its commercial rate levy model. It's essentially a tax on local businesses.
"I wonder whether within a few years' time there may have to be some other funding models looked at.
"The minute you discuss funding, or funding models, it gets very emotional.
"[I think] what will need to be done is a very independent review of potential funding models - it could be that at the end of it, for Queenstown, we come out and say `the model we have is the best for us in the short to medium term'.
"It doesn't hurt to review yourself occasionally."
REFLECTIONS
Strangely, it was a review of himself which saw the decision - shared only with his wife Mandy Pahl - to leave DQ to become Ngai Tahu Tourism's regional manager.
"The Ngai Tahu position is such a great opportunity - DQ had sort of become a part of me and it was quite difficult to think about leaving, but then I thought '10 years is enough'.
"I'm sick of reading about myself in the newspaper."
In his new role, Mr Kennedy will remain in Queenstown, but oversee Ngai Tahu Tourism's products in the area, which include Shotover Jet, the Dart River Safaris and the Hollyford Track, as well as Wasp Marine, a company which makes jet-boat engines.
"When people talk about Ngai Tahu, it's one of the most respected tourism companies in New Zealand - that was a big factor.
"In the end, it wasn't really a hard decision to go."
Mr Kennedy, a man who believes working as a team is the only way forward, did have some advice for his successor, whoever that person may be.
"I think the most important thing to do is listen.
"I know when I first took the role 10 years ago, I didn't say anything or do anything for the first six months, because it was just a case of listening to what's going on.
"If you listen, you get a feel for what you need to do, anyway."
