Kiwis Give Space Tourism a Lift

By WOOD, Alan

Nelsonian Carolyn Wincer boldly points tourists to where few have gone before — using a sales pitch to convince the seriously rich to part with $US200,000 ($NZ260,000) and shoot into space.

For the moment based in London, albeit in a globetrotting role, Wincer is "head of astronaut sales" with Virgin Galactic, selling flights into the unknown from 2009.

This summer she is taking a break back in the South Island where she started life on a Rai Valley dairy farm, talking up the growing interest by Kiwis in the Virgin space flights.

"Along with the Republic of Ireland, we (New Zealand) have the highest proportion of Virgin Galactic astronauts per head of population in the world," she said.

Customers include Cantabrians Mark Rocket, an internet entrepreneur, and Jackie Maw, a realtor, with a lot of other interest.

"This is the ultimate experience — what does it feel like to be weightless, what does it feel like to be in space … to look back on the planet."

Before beginning the space role, Wincer took reservations for 512 years, for a collection of luxury properties privately owned by Richard Branson at prices up to $US44,000 a night, to people with both the wealth and motivation and wanting something personal and laid back.

These included Necker Island, part of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, Ulusaba game reserve in South Africa and the Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, she said.

"Selling private islands and game reserves is easier than space travel because it’s not anything freaky, and everyone kinda dreams of going on those holidays."

Wincer said she started in tourism at age 17 as a domestic travel agent and visitor information centre employee, having trained at Nelson Polytechnic.

But after teaching others how to sell tourism she left for a tutoring job in Thailand.

She then "ended up in London by accident" after the Thai college was wiped out by a monsoon. Luckily she skipped into a job at hotel- based Virgin Limited Edition around September 2000.

The idea for the world’s first commercial manned space business – - Virgin Galactic — was announced by Branson and Burt Rutan in September 2004.

So far, fewer than 500 people have been to space, but Virgin spaceships based on the Rutan designed SpaceShipOne — backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — should change that.

Christchurch’s House of Travel has 10 accredited space agents around the country including Adventure Travel’s Ian Collier, telling potential passengers about the chance to blast off from the Mojave desert in California, then land in New Mexico after a 212-hour flight as high as 110km.