Jean-Michel Jefferson scores a double with Conde Nast

Jean-Michel Jefferson scores a double with Conde Nast
Jean-Michel Jefferson of Ahipara Travel and he has just been named in the renowned Conde Nast Travelers’ 14th annual Top Travel Specialists’ list for 2013.

It is the second year in a row that he has been selected from thousands around the world to be named one of only 146 tour guides and travel agents on the “custom trip designers” list.

Conde Nast director Wendy Perrin says getting into this group is, statistically speaking, tougher than getting into Harvard.

“Staying on it is tougher still,”” Perrin says. “It requires not only an absence of valid reader complaints but also on going positive assessments.

“They have the expertise and clout to get you the rooms with the best views and the savviest English-speaking guides, not to mention VIP perks.”

Conde Nast’s travel magazine is read by more than three million people, with even more linking in through its website and tablet application. Its readership has a slight skew to women, but all its readers are likely to be educated and in well-paid jobs.

The Top Travel Specialists list is also known as the Readers’ Choice Awards. That means those who make it “have all been road-tested by Condé Nast Traveler readers, editors, or both”. Jean-Michel Jefferson gets his own profile page.

Jean-Michel runs Ahipara Travel, a boutique tourism company, from Central Otago with his wife Karen. Jean-Michel says they have focused on delivering unique and real New Zealand experiences to travellers for the past 10 years.

Ahipara has put together trips ranging from NZ$5000 to nearly NZ$1 million. Many regular clients are from the United States, but the Jefferson’s also have a strong following from East and West Europe.

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