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Cindy Bakewell may be new to Wellsford but she has decades of experience in the travel industry.
She works from home under the umbrella of NZ Travel Brokers and does everything a traditional travel agent does and more.
She says a key point of difference between a broker and a traditional agent is that brokers are not tied to pushing a limited range of travel options.
“Brokers, being independent, will find a product that suits you,” she says.
Moreover, Cindy happens to belong to an exclusive group of Virtuoso Travel Advisors that enables her to access exclusive VIP benefits and extras that are simply unavailable to most agents.
“It allows me to put the ‘wow’ into client’s holidays,” she says.
She adds that working from home also has its advantages. Rather than being strictly tied to office hours, Cindy is on call 24/7.
If you need to reconfirm bookings, your luggage has gone lost, or you have missed a connection, Cindy will pick up the phone, even if it’s 2am in New Zealand, and use her extensive travel know-how to sort things out.
As her tagline puts it: “Without a travel broker, you are on your own.”
Cindy specialises in group bookings for schools, corporates and inter-generational family trips, which can be near impossible for individuals to coordinate online.
For a big family cruise trip, Cindy will coordinate everybody’s timetable, organise the booking and payment, and make sure family members have cabins next to each other.
She especially enjoys organising school trips, particularly to out of the way places like Mozambique, Madagascar and Uzbekistan, where there is often a humanitarian component to the trip.
“It’s a thrill to be part of providing students with that experience and making sure everything runs smoothly,” she says.
