After 15 years’ delivering world-class events - culminating in this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup - Dave Beeche feels like his new job is the "culmination of a whole lifetime’s worth of work".
Mr Beeche, 53, was yesterday announced as the new chief executive of Queenstown-based tourism magnate RealNZ, a role he will officially start on January 29.
He replaces former chief executive Stephen England-Hall, who resigned from the position in March.
RealNZ chairman Martin Dippie said Mr Beeche’s experience managing complex multi-site businesses, his strong people and leadership skills and passion for conservation gave him an excellent foundation to grow the South Island business.
The former chief executive of Triathlon New Zealand, Triathlon World Champs, Ironman Oceania and Lagardere Unlimited Oceania - through which he established the Queenstown Marathon in 2014 - said the appointment felt like a dream come true.
"I’ll never forget coming here as a teenager, it just made my heart sing, and I thought ‘one day I’m going to live here’ and it took about 35 years to get here."
He viewed RealNZ - founded in 1954 by Les and Olive Hutchins - as a "purpose-driven company" and said he was passionate about helping the world fall in love with conservation.
There were also parallels with the his previous event work, "creating world-class experiences that are just really translatable into the tourism sector".
Mr Beeche said that sector was still in recovery following Covid - international visitors, nationally, were at 70% of pre-Covid levels.
He was mindful of bringing that level of tourism back in a sustainable and regenerative way.
"RealNZ, as a leader in the sector, is going to have a big role to play in that.
"I think it’s going to be an important part of this journey over the next two years."
That would also need to be taken into consideration given the company’s growth aspirations.
Mr Beeche said there was "definitely some ambition for further growth" from shareholders into related parts of the tourism sector, while also growing the utilisation and efficiency of existing assets.
Decarbonisation of the historic TSS Earnslaw, first announced in 2021, was also an ongoing project.
While switching the Earnslaw from burning coal to either wood pellets, biofuel (diesel or gas) or hydrogen was met with some controversy, Mr Beeche said there was "no doubt" the history of the "Lady of the Lake" - which just turned 111 - needed to be preserved, "we also have to find a way to reduce its carbon footprint".
In terms of immediate headwinds, the ongoing rental housing crisis in Queenstown was a major focus, he said.
"There’s a lot of work under way to help resolve that, but I think there’ll be a bit of a tail on that, in terms of making sure we can bring the workers ... that we need ... to the coalface."
