Innovators named

Ryan Sanders of Christchurch-based Haka Tours, Rhythm and Vines’ Hamish Pinkham and Ben Knill of interactive online holiday planner Beek, have been named finalists in this year’s Pacific Asia Travel Association Young Tourism Entrepreneur Award to be held in Auckland on October 14. Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar said the theme of this year’s awards is innovation and that these three directors had plenty of it. He also said continual innovation and a commitment to that is what they were looking for when selecting the finalists. “That is critical in an industry that has to compete for visitors against much bigger and better resourced international competitors,” Cossard said.