Roam-DMC (Destination Management Company) was officially launched two weeks ago — its head office is in Queenstown, led by general manager Sarah McDonald, who’s spent almost four years at Destination Queenstown, with an Auckland office headed up by managing director Jenny Walsh, making it the only two-office DMC in New Zealand.
McDonald says the new venture’s supported by Motive Events, a full-service event company based in Auckland, born from Covid.
Initially focused on putting on events in NZ for companies and corporates based here, "nine out of 10 of those are looking to go offshore", McDonald says, while Motive also noticed huge demand for events here from overseas.
Seeing a gap for a DMC delivering onshore, Motive is now a shareholder in Roam, which will work with clients to curate elevated and bespoke experiences all over the country, including Queenstown.
McDonald says one of their aims is to ensure New Zealand is "put back on the map of international standards for a business event destination".
"We need to lift the game, as a country, and we need to be playing at the same level a lot of event planners experience around the world, so we’ll roam a bit further and give it a crack."
She notes the United States presents a massive opportunity, in part because their dollar goes "so much further here", while, on average, a business client spends about $175 more a night than any other visitor, they stay longer, and represent a captive audience with which a host community can share messaging and encourage return visitation, all of which will help grow the local and national economy.
Queenstown, McDonald says, is in a far better position tourism-wise than the rest of the country, however, there’s still work to be done on attracting the corporate and incentive market here in the shoulder seasons.
"And that’s exactly what the business events market is.
"We bring in groups from March to September, obviously avoiding school holidays ... and because they’re corporate groups, that’s when they want to come, and they spend more money, and they want to do cool stuff.
"So it puts the least amount of pressure on our infrastructure in a negative way."
McDonald also says the benefit for clients of working with "local legends" is the insider knowledge they’ll benefit from.
"You can’t do anything without partnership, and that’s where the magic happens.
"What I’m excited about is I have that real niche mind into what an incentive client needs — it’s something they can’t get off the shelves, or something they couldn’t just walk in and do.
"We have the incredible operators that are keen to do it, we just need to put those pieces together and that’s where my role comes into play.
"We just need to think a little bit further than what maybe people from outside of town think is an incentive, which is get on a wine tour ... we can do better."
