Midday Travel

Midday Travel specialises in air tickets and has extensive experience in the cruise industry, covering all continents and using scientific research vessels, six-star luxury cruises and everything in between. Midday Travel has consistently won awards for selling cruise, the most recent being the 2018 Scenic top agency award. The Mount Eden based company prides itself on curating unique experiences and events that reflect the life experiences of owners Evelyn Lee and Jeffery Liu, and come complete with a customised photo book for travellers to collect their memories.

How would you describe a typical day for you?

We are always thinking about new groups, new regions, new itineraries, managing all existing group arrangements, and chatting with clients. We also host a regular Chinese radio show now on Saturdays from 10am to 11am about travel where we discuss specials and share itineraries and travel tips. The Chinese market should definitely know us now. Midday Travel has built up to be the expert of cruising because we have been focusing on it for over 16 years. 

How do you define a great travel experience?

We want to create experiences for people. A lot of people see travel in the media and think they will never be able to encounter that, so we try to put those travel experiences into our products to make that dream come true and give our clients a once in a lifetime experience. 

What do you like about being part of the GTN family?

We were the first shop to sell a ticket with GTN – we’ve been with GTN from the start and we still love it. You are a super team. 

What’s been the greatest moment in your career/a highlight?

When I take group members to the place they wanted to be and they feel so overwhelmed and they feel so special. Like one time we stayed at Times Square Hotel, which is the only hotel where you can see the Times Square from – it was a beautiful finish to the trip. And when we encouraged people to book on the correct side of the ship so that they could see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan at sunrise. Everybody was so overwhelmed. It’s so fulfilling when our group members trust us, book with us, and in the end they tell me they made the right choice in booking with Midday Travel. 

How do you balance work and life?

It’s a 24 hour job. I can’t balance it because I’m so passionate about it. Even when we have conversations with our kids most of the time we are talking about travel. 

What’s the best piece of advice you could give to someone first starting out in the industry?

If you want to work in this industry you have to be patient, otherwise it will not work. And you have to have enthusiasm – if you don’t have the heart you can’t do it right.