Trish Seeherr made a conscious decision to do things differently soon after launching her brand TS Travel, and it’s a move that has paid off after she won Cruise Broker of the Year New Zealand at the recent CLIA Cruise Industry Awards.
The win, she says, felt quite surreal. “I was absolutely delighted, proud, and a bit emotional if I’m honest,” Seeherr tells Travel Today. “What made it really special is knowing how much has gone into the last couple of years to get to this point.”
Her success wasn’t overnight. Seeherr says it’s been ‘a real journey’, pointing specifically to a period just after launching TS Travel where she says things were pretty quiet and she didn’t really feel like a business owner.
“That was a bit of a wake-up call, so I decided to change that,” she says. “I started teaching myself marketing and social media, and made a commitment to say yes to opportunities, rather than no.”
This saw Seeherr earn a place on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Seminar at Sea in Alaska on Norwegian Encore, a trip she says completely shifted things.
She says it spurred her to make the decision to specialise in cruise and fully immerse herself in it, from CLIA training, industry events and ship inspections, to building her Destination of the Month campaigns month after month.
“I was putting in a huge amount of time behind the scenes, often questioning whether it was landing, but I kept going,” she says. “It wasn’t always easy, but I knew I wanted to build something better.”
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Seeherr didn’t come all this way alone. She says being accepted into the TIME mentoring program was another turning point, as was making the move to Wanderlust, which she says has created an environment where you’re encouraged to grow and specialise.
“But more than anything, it’s the people,” she says of Wanderlust. “Even down to having our director attend the CLIA awards and collect my award on my behalf—that says a lot.”
As for what’s next for New Zealand’s top cruise broker, Seeherr says there’s definitely no slowing down. “I’m currently planning to host a South Pacific group cruise next Apr with a food focus on board Norwegian Cruise Line, which I’m really excited about.”
She’s also got personal travel planned, her bucket list including a Galápagos cruise, the Amazon, and a Colombia river cruise.
But ultimately, she says, it’s about continuing to grow the business, delivering better experiences for her clients, and building on the momentum of the last couple of years.
