Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort Wins Big at Taupo Business Awards!
The ServiceIQ Great Lake Taupo Business Awards2017 was held at the Wairakei Resort and attracted more than 300 of Taupo’s business leaders covering a wide range of industries and niches.
TDSR is very proud to have achieved the following:
- Winner – BNZ Overall Business of the Year 2017
- Winner - Strettons Excellence in Business – Large Business Award
- Highly commended – Quality Print Excellence in Sustainability
- Highly commended – Wairakei Resort Excellence in Leadership
In his acceptance speech, Barry Kirkland, owner of TDSR spoke of the 30 year journey and recognised the large number of business people in the room who at some stage had worked at or been suppliers to the resort.
He also took a few minutes to praise the staff and made particular mention of the hard work and abilities of Mirela Petrar, Operations Manager.
Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort now looks forward to the next major challenge after making the finals in two categories in the New Zealand Tourism Awards 2017.
Here are the categories TDSR will be competing in:
New Zealand Tourism Awards 2017
- Westpac Business Excellence Award
- Department of Conservation Environmental Tourism Award
The awards presentation will be held at a gala dinner at the Air Force Museum, Christchurch, 6 pm September 7.
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Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort (TDSR) is an iconic multi-award winning activity and accommodation provider incorporating thermal mineral pools, interactive warm water park, a luxurious spa facility, holiday park accommodation and a popular café.
We are proud to be family owned and have a staff of 60. TDSR is the only New Zealand holiday Park to be ISO 9001:2015 accredited recognising world class standards in Quality management systems and is the only Qualmark 5 star and Environmental Gold holiday park in the country.
The awards successes and the finals positions are a reward for our efforts and commitment to quality, innovation, service, sustainability, robust systems and sound business practice.
Here are a few of the highlights from our entries.
Business Excellence
We have 30 years of sound business practice behind us and a core goal is financial sustainability. We have a never-stand-still philosophy and this has led to TDSR being industry leaders in adoption of emerging technologies. Our integration of Quality Systems with cloud technology has allowed us to be ahead of the pack in staff management, training, customer experience, environmental sustainability, digital marketing and financial management.
Operational excellence is at the heart of what we strive to achieve and this has served to grow our reputation as leaders. We are on a journey of continuous improvement and have taken on a virtual board of experts in change management, tourism innovation, digital architecture, legal, HR, theme park management, digital marketing and marketing automation, chemical engineering, intellectual property and more.
This has driven strong growth and has resulted in an exceptional financial result in FY16/17 to cap several years of growth.
Sustainability
TDSR was bought as a dilapidated pools complex in 1987. Our journey to the multi-faceted attraction you see today has been grounded in a sincere belief in the importance of our local environment and our impact on a global scale.
Our Joint Venture with The Lake Taupo Hilton has harnessed our geothermal energy resources to supply the Hilton’s 100 rooms, spa, conference facilities, restaurant and public spaces with heating and hot water as well as our own facilities. Excess hot water is run through the TDSR pools and if any is still unused it is returned to the source. This has resulted in significant energy savings across both businesses.
Our Predator Free program is an innovative project and will be part of a new Joint Venture. We have also moved to environmentally friendly management processes using the cloud, digital self-check-in, digital training and our marketing strategies are almost entirely digital. We are in the process of assessing CO2 use from our digital marketing footprint to enable offsetting.
Innovation
TDSR has always challenged the boundaries. Right from the start, we have operated from outside the box and this has led to a test and learn process that has allowed us to fail at times. One of our earliest challenger strategies was the crocodile park idea. This generated a huge amount of media interest including a Herald editorial on how crazy TDSR was. Excellent pre-internet marketing of course. Or our air services venture. This one didn’t fly financially.
However, the majority of our innovations have been wildly successful. The aforementioned Joint Venture with the Hilton has created an industry benchmark for big thinking. Our cloud-based systems have led to awards from ISO and Qualmark. Our digital strategies have had a significant impact on growth and measurability. We were one of the earliest adopters of augmented reality with a holiday park app produced more than four years ago. And all of these and other innovations have a positive effect on the visitor experience.
We will not rest on our laurels. We already have a number of new projects underway to improve our physical offerings and to take advantage of new innovations in artificial intelligence, web user experience, business systems and communications.