Meet Larissa Turkina who recently joined the Tourplan Europe team in the Customer Experience Specialist role.

Larissa comes with over 15 years experience in the UK inbound tour operator industry including groups, corporate, FIT, VIP, and managing a variety of tour programmes. Her extensive experience as a Tourplan user, combined with her passion for travel and her background in the tourism sector will add significant value to our clients throughout Europe.

In her spare time, she loves the theatre, art, and history, learning new languages, and traveling.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Larissa!

Meet Jenevieve Apollo, who recently joined the Tourplan Africa team in the Customer Experience Specialist role.

Jenevieve comes with a Bachelor of Science degree and over six years’ experience in customer service management, call centre, and administration. Her passion for tourism and travel, combined with her extensive customer care knowledge will be invaluable to our clients throughout Africa.

In her spare time, she loves to read, keep fit and spend quality time with her family.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Jenevieve!

Meet Paula Martini, who has recently joined the Tourplan Africa team in the role of Customer Experience Specialist.

Paula studied travel, tourism, and business, and has over 30 years of experience in the travel sector. Her passion for the industry, its processes and technology, along with her experience in business administration and customer service, will add significant value to our clients across Southern Africa.

In her spare time, Paula loves all things creative, yoga and she especially enjoys living on the North Coast of Durban, South Africa, in a beautiful small town named Ballito.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Paula!

Meet Caesar Khor Li Ying, who has recently joined the Tourplan Asia team in the Sales and Marketing Assistant role.

Caesar comes with a Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Communication and has experience in project management, training, and social media content creation and moderation. Her passion for tourism and tech and her background in marketing communication will add significant value to the team and will be instrumental to our ongoing growth throughout Asia.

In her spare time, Caesar enjoys coffee, playing the piano, and loves spending quality time with her two beautiful fur babies.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Caesar!

Meet Lizeth (Liseth) Aragon Alfaro, the newest member of the Tourplan Latin America Support Team. Liz studied Business and Tourism Administration and comes with 20 years’ experience in the Tourism sector. Her passion for the industry and technology, along with her experience in administration, operations, planning, sales, and customer service will add significant value to our clients across LATAM.

In her spare time, Liz loves to go to the beach, hike, travel, and explore beautiful places in Costa Rica.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Lizeth!

We are extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Stephanie Pajuelo in the role of Latin America Regional Director. Stephanie joins the Tourplan team with over 14 years’ experience in the tourism industry and holds an MBA and a degree in Tourism. Her strong industry and sector background, coupled with her passion for relationship building, will add significant value to both our team and clients across Latin America.

In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys traveling, self-drive trips, trekking adventures, swimming, and the outdoors.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Stephanie!

Meet Alberto Besa Polanco, the newest Tourplan Latin America Support Team member.

Fluent in Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, along with a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Tourism, 32 years’ experience in Airlines, DMCs, GSAs, and the hospitality industry, Alberto will be instrumental in delivering exceptional support to our clients across LATAM.

In his spare time, he is an avid golfer and enjoys skiing, cycling, and meeting new people.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Alberto!

We are delighted to welcome Donnevan Botha back to the Tourplan team, as Systems and Helpdesk Manager, Africa.

Donnevan comes with over a decade of IT experience in building and maintaining infrastructure and project implementation for a number of JSE-listed companies. Coupled with his extensive Tourplan support experience, we have no doubt that Donnevan’s customer care knowledge and his technical and IT experience will be invaluable to our clients.

In his spare time, Donnevan is an avid reader and loves spending quality time with his family and friends.

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Donnevan!

We are delighted to announce that Mark Sadler has joined the Tourplan team, as Sales Manager, Pacific region.

Mark comes with over 20 years’ experience in Sales, Business Development, and Customer Relationship Management in the software, hardware, and technology solutions industry, across New Zealand and Australia.

With the global travel market accelerating, we’re excited to have Mark’s experience, passion for relationship building and travel, helping our clients grow their businesses and achieve success with fit-for-purpose solutions.

In his spare time, Mark is an adventurer, enthusiastic camper, and swimmer.  He travels as much as he can, locally and globally!

Welcome to the Tourplan family, Mark!

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Sharon de Leur in the role of the Tourplan Global Sales and Marketing Manager, based at our Head Office in Christchurch. Sharon joins the team with over 20 years’ experience in sales and marketing, of which 17 of those years have been in the hospitality, travel, and casino industries.  She has studied CRM, Digital Communication and Multimedia, along with a Dipl. in Communication Management, and is currently in the process of completing her Honours, Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Brand Communication.

“I would like to welcome Sharon to the Tourplan Executive Management team. Her strong industry background and experience will be instrumental in shaping the company’s sales and marketing vision, as well as developing brand-building strategies for Tourplan’s global product and services portfolio. We are very excited to work with Sharon,” adds Craig Gray, Tourplan’s Chief Commercial Officer.

In her spare time, Sharon enjoys spending time with her family, is an avid reader, loves the outdoors, and to travel.  Welcome to the Tourplan family, Sharon!

In response to continued business growth Tourplan is pleased to announce a key expansion of the Tourplan Board – that of the appointment of a non-executive board chairperson. Mark Bowman will be joining forces with existing company directors – Peter Trumic, John Snelling, and Craig Gray – in this significant new strategic role.

Mark is a professional director and experienced chair. He brings to the Tourplan Board an extensive range of governance and business skills. His responsibilities will include working with the company to lead us into a more formal board environment. This will provide Tourplan with greater depth and clarity in decision making processes for future strategies.

One of Mark’s initial responsibilities will be to participate in the global executive team summit later this year. He is looking forward to meeting all of Tourplan’s regional managers and senior personnel, and further developing his understanding of our clients, people, products and services.