Our Team

Prior to founding Visitor Solutions in 1999 Craig worked for a number of public and private organisations involved in leisure, sport, recreation, community development, environmental protection, and tourism. Over the past twenty years Craig has amassed significant practical experience across these sectors. In the past ten years alone he has successfully completed hundreds of interdisciplinary projects for clients including Qualmark, SPARC, Department of Conservation, Village Roadshow and Mighty River Power. Craig is particularly interested in drawing together research, planning, and conceptualisation and design disciplines in order to find implementable solutions.

Career Highlights:

• Developing a range of facility partnership projects with Auckland City Council (such as The Auckland Performing Arts Centre and Tamaki College Community Recreation Centre).
• Conceptualising ‘Footprints Waipoua’ judged by Lonely Planet to be one of the top 100 eco tourism experiences.
• Working on the redevelopment of Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga) to repair the cultural and environmental integrity of the site and improve the visitor experience.
• Working on the development of one of New Zealand’s largest Multi Sports projects, the Papatoetoe Multi Sport Centre.
• Working on the research, planning and development of the Wesley Youth Centre.

Stephen is a recreation and tourism researcher and consultant who has worked for a number of university organisations as well as for public and private sector bodies as an advisor. He currently holds the newly established post of Senior Professor in Sustainable Tourism Management a professorship at London Metropolitan Business School (London Metropolitan University, which is Europe’s largest Business School with around 200 staff). Stephen is a foundation member of Visitor Solutions and has worked on many of our projects.

His extensive experience covers a number of countries in Europe and Asia Pacific, particularly New Zealand and the South Pacific. He also holds a number of university positions and has advised organisations on developing their research capabilities in tourism in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Stephen also holds a number of editorial roles for publishers including Pearson Education, Elsevier Science and Cengage Learning and is Associate Editor of the top tourism journal - Tourism Management ensuring his knowledge is a blend of the cutting edge industry and academic research which can be shared with clients, especially in relation to best practice.

Career Highlights:

• Over 20 years of advising international organisations involved in tourism, especially on best practice.
• 16 years working on tourism in the South Pacific and New Zealand.
• Editor of international journals on recreation and tourism – such as Tourism Management.
• Over 50 Commercial tourism research and planning projects for international financial and development organisations, central governments, local authorities and corporates.
• Over 100 journal articles on all aspects of tourism which have been published internationally.
• Guest speaker at numerous international conferences on tourism and leisure.

Richard has been involved in a lead role for a number of organisations focusing in the sport, leisure and recreation sector both in New Zealand and the UK. Prior to joining Visitor Solutions, Richard worked as the General Manager for Harbour Sport and Team Leader for the recreation policy and planning team at Auckland City Council. Richard has also held senior positions in PMP, the UK’s leading sport and leisure consultancy and in leading the sport, leisure and tourism functions for a Local Authority in the United Kingdom. Richard is particularly interested in sports planning and optimisation and has undertaken projects in this area for various clients including Sport England and SPARC.

Career Highlights:

• Developing the National Facility Strategies for Netball New Zealand and New Zealand Football.
• Working on the feasibility study for the development of a sub regional rowing facility at Lucas Creek resulting in a reprioritisation of the project within the LTCCP.
• Leading on the redevelopment of four major UK leisure centres from initial needs assessment, through feasibility to project delivery.

Danny has been involved in a lead role for a number leisure sector organisations particularly focusing on sport, leisure and outdoor recreation. Prior to joining Visitor Solutions, Danny worked as the Strategy Director for ARPASS, General Manager for Harbour Sport, Leisure Services Manager for Waitakere City Council, and the Senior Recreation Planner for the Department of Conservation. Danny’s previous roles have covered the specific areas of research and feasibility studies for facility developments, regional sport and recreation strategic planning, project development, consultation, facility management, policy development and project management.

Career Highlights

• Leading the ‘Sporting Venues’ component (potential competition, non competition and training venues) for the Auckland Commonwealth Games 2018 Pre Bid Feasibility Project.
• Developing the Auckland Regional Paddling and Rowing Facilities Strategy that led to alignment between funders and decision makers for rowing and Waka Ama facilities
• Developing SPARC’s national learning’s project for ‘Council-School Partnerships’ looking at the development of sport and recreation facilities on education land.
• Development of the Auckland Cricket Relocation Feasibility Study to determine potential options and associated costs of relocation.

Harley Prowse is an established GIS consultant with a strong background in geography. He has considerable experience in respect to all aspects of GIS including project management, strategic planning, business analysis; user needs assessment, application design, application development, data analysis, data integration and data capture. Harley has undertaken GIS consultancy for a range of organisations across diverse industry sectors and specialises in Strategic GIS consulting, business analysis and requirements gathering, application scoping and design and project management.

Gordon has been involved in a lead research and advisory role for a number of organisations. Prior to joining Visitor Solutions in 2010, Gordon was operating as an independent research and advisory consultant. He has also served as Senior Research Advisor with SPARC, as was for many years the Department of Conservation’s senior social scientist nationally responsible for recreation and tourism. He has published research in a variety of New Zealand and international publications, and has also presented research findings at international conferences. Gordon is particularly interested in growing people’s quality of life through participation in recreation, sport and arts activities, and generally improving the quality of information available to aid decision-makers.

Career Highlights include:

• Conducting key research that improved the understanding and management of mountain biking issues internationally
• Conducting major national workshops on visitor impact research needs - environmental and social respectively - and completing research strategies from each
• Conducting a national visitor survey programme on all of DOC's Great Walks system
• Compiling & editing a special issue of the International Journal of Wilderness on Antarctic Tourism, and doing a special 2000 publication The State of Wilderness in New Zealand
• Having both papers he presented at a conference in Vienna selected from 100 others by editors of the Journal of Nature Conservation (Europe) to be among the 20 finally published in a feature issue of their journal (on visitor research and monitoring).
• Being told by the leader of an ethnic community conservation group that a research project he had initiated at DOC had directly led to the creation of their group
• Initiating and supporting the development programme culminating in DOC’s current visitor monitoring tools and system

Tonia has a background in leading large and small teams from within large multidisciplinary environments, local authority (council) teams, and architectural practices worldwide. A clear communicator, she is competent at deriving briefs from multiple clients and stakeholders, and an effective presenter to any forum from private and commercial clients to Local Government and the media.

Prior to joining Visitor Solutions, Tonia worked in NZ, and extensively on Community facilities and Sports Centres of excellence in the UK, following a period of working in Switzerland.

A trusted advisor to local authority, community, private and public sector clients and stakeholders throughout NZ, Tonia has recently provided technical support to Auckland City Council in their provision of their Rugby World Cup Live Sites. Her project portfolio includes feasibility and master-planning work through to practical completion of private and public buildings throughout New Zealand and overseas – all within time and to budget.

Career Highlights include:-

• Site masterplanning, design and procurement of several key buildings at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground including the Radcliffe Road Stand and Centre of Excellence. These upgrades ensured the ground’s achievement and retention of Test Match status as determined by the ECB.
• Event overlays and masterplanning of Auckland council’s RWC 2011 legacy projects and celebrations including Civic Lakes, Albany – Fanzone, Quay St, Auckland – Opening Celebration, RWC 2011 Countdown Clock QEII Square, Auckland, and Te Wero and Eastern Viaduct improvements.
• Concept design of potential significant competition, non-competition and training venues for the Auckland Commonwealth Games 2018 Pre Bid Feasibility Project.
• Masterplanning of significant parks, reserves and open spaces to promote funding and governance, including Mt Smart Stadium Auckland, Carisbrook Stadium Dunedin, Molyneux Park Alexandra, Hastings Regional Sports Park, Trafalgar Park Nelson, Lake Wendouree Ballarat, and Leopold Recreation Reserve in Victoria Austalia.
• Redevelopment of the Cromwell Memorial Hall and Otara Public Library to create significant community hubs, and reinvigorate existing facilities.