Tourism champ joins hall of fame

The Northern Advocate Business Hall of Fame Inductee Jeroen Jongejans with his partner Kate Malcolm and award sponsor Greg Alexander, Northern Publishing GM.

Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards 2015

Northland's top tourism champ has made it into the Northern Advocate Hall of Fame, having been inducted at the Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards 2015 ceremony.

Presenting the award at Forum North on Friday night was Northern Publishing's general manager, Greg Alexander, who said Jeroen Jongejans had showed courage in his passion for Northland.

"He has supported the Hundertwasser Art Centre, was a previous councillor and is an avid chess player who once plucked turkeys in Palmerston North."

Alexander said Jongejans had a drive for innovation, was highly visible as a tourism leader and had showed strong principles - sitting on numerous regional boards and groups.

"He has fallen in love with Northland," he said.

"He is a great asset to our region."

Accepting the award, Jongejans said he was stunned to have been made an inductee into the Hall of Fame and so had not prepared a speech.

However, he encouraged the business people of the region to be smart and continue to work together to help create sustainable jobs.

"Tourism is my passion, and Northland and the Poor Knights in particular. We are so lucky here."

A director of Dive! Tutukaka, which employs eight fulltime staff and 30 returning seasonal staff, he thanked his partner Kate Malcolm and said the pair has just returned from a holiday in Samoa which gave them even more gratitude for Northland's pristine waters.

"We spent two weeks in Samoa, where the marine environment is depleted."

Jongejans has been instrumental in enhancing the Poor Knights marine reserve and hopes that more reserves in Northland will help the region reach its tourism potential and become akin to the Great Barrier Reef.

The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve is rated as New Zealand's best dive site and considered to be in the top 10 dive sites globally as the best subtropical diving in the world with a rich cultural heritage and marine biodiversity. The tourism champ, originally from the Netherlands, is a director on the Northland Inc board. As well as Northland Chamber of Commerce involvement, he has championed the Hundertwasser Arts Centre project since 2010, is a Tourism Industry Association New Zealand Board member since 2011 and a NZ Tourism Trust trustee since 2012. He was a member of the Northland Conservation Board from 2003 to 2011 and a member of the Northland Tourism Development Group from 2002 to 2014, serving the last four years as the chairman. He was also chairman of the Northland Sustainable Tourism Charter (2004-2007) and a Whangarei district councillor from 2010 to 2013.

Jongejans has received more than 12 awards in recent years, the most recent being the Tourism Industry Champion Award at the Tourism Industry Awards earlier this month.

Jeroen Jongejans joins the Northern Advocate Business Hall of Fame with Wayne Cowley (2014), the late Michael Springford (2013) and Mike Simm (2012).