Martin Keating – Managing Director
Born and brought up in the UK – I escaped to Australia when I was 21… on a working holiday and never went back! Coles Myer Ltd sponsored my application for residency but several years later I ended up living and working in Papua New Guinea. Back in Australia I undertook Commercial Pilot training but ended up flying a telephone and have done ever since. I have many passions and usually I am split between all of them – My family, France, England, Australia and Africa, helping people, great hotels, comfortable seats on great airlines, nice staterooms on awesome ships and great food throughout! This all sounds a bit contrived but I am what I am and inspite of (maybe because of) all of the above I’m never happier than when I’m playing with planes, wooden trains and railways with my young Son.
Michelle Keating – Director & Financial Controller
Born in Melbourne, grew up in the Riverland of South Australia on a vineyard, I completed my Bachelor of Business Degree with Deakin Uni by studying remotely whilst living in Berri and Mount Gambier. My studies towards Certified Practicing Accountant qualification then took place whilst studying remotely in Leigh Creek, Cairns and the Torres Strait (Mabuiag, Warraber, Poruma and Dauan). My first overseas holiday was to the USA and I have been fortunate to go back there since – I’ve even seen snow in the Grand Canyon twice! Other travel highlights include walking through the chateaus in the Loire Valley and driving through Merlin’s forest in Brittany in France. My Dad was born just north of Paris during WW2 of Slovenian parents and I have been fortunate enough to visit both the village where he was born and the village where his grandparents were born near Loz in Slovenia. My greatest achievement to date has definitely been my son who is already 5 years old!
Andrea McNamara – Travel Specialist (Cairns)
With close to 20 years experience in the travel industry, more than ten of them at BLT Cairns, I have booked a lot of wonderful trips for my clients. I have travelled extensively in Europe and Asia and more recently added Mexico to my travel portfolio. I have also escorted group tours ex Cairns in the past. My particular skill set is airlines, flight routes and schedules, how to find the best connections and which ones to avoid. I have good problem solving skills and have managed to help my clients out of some potential travel disasters. My background is in languages. I speak English, German and Spanish fluently, French badly and a little bit of Mandarin. When travelling I am interested in people, culture and history. There is so much to learn. I love to find where the locals hang out and get a glimpse of real life in the country I visit. Let me know what I can do for you.
Hagen Korinihona – Travel Specialist (Cairns)
Born and lived most of my life in PNG. My passion for travel started as a cabin crew with Air Niugini and later as a travel consultant with Cathay Pacific and Solomon Airlines. I’ve travelled extensively around the Pacific Islands, including the Solomon Islands, Fiji , Samoa , Tonga and Hawaii. The highlight of my life is migrating to Australia with my family.
Katrina Scholefield – Travel Specialist (Weipa)
A true adventurer at heart, we were on a 4WD holiday around Australia when we discovered the beauty of Weipa. My husband and my two boys are my mates in this big adventure of life. Having worked in hotels in the UK and travelling throughout Europe, I just love travelling and discovering. We’ve skied in Japan and New Zealand, cruised to New Caledonia and relaxed in Tahiti. As I’m a sports fanatic, I especially love organising my customers’ holidays which revolve around sporting events!
Chris Owens – Travel Specialist (Weipa)
New to the Travel Industry, I have 25 years’ experience in the Finance Industry helping customers to save and budget for their dream holidays, which I’m excited to now be able to help them plan. One of my great passions is people, I absolutely enjoy helping people to achieve their goals. I have a genuine love for this beautiful country we live in and enjoy planning adventures and travel with my Husband. We have enjoyed a beer at both the most northern and southern pubs in Australia, travelled along both the east and west coasts meeting many characters along the way. Our next adventures will be to enjoy the experience of the Indian Pacific and Ghan Rail Journeys so we can share our experiences with others. Sporting Clay Target Shooting is my favourite hobby, it allows me to challenge myself (and hubby haha) and I intend to be a spectator to the sport at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.
Laura Ostrouhoff – Travel Specialist (Weipa)
I am new to the travel industry and excited to get my foot in the door of such a fun profession. I have had previous experience in hospitality at places like the Star Casino, Broadbeach and administration work most recently working in a hospital. I am a massive preacher of empathy and want to help everyone I come across so it will be very exciting to help in a more traditionally fun way like planning a holiday! I am Gold Coast born and bread, so when my partner got the opportunity to flip his life upside down and move rurally to Weipa, I jumped on the bandwagon to try something completely new! I am a very “Type A”, detail and schedule orientated person so I think I’m really going to love building itineraries and making people’s travel dreams come true. I have travelled the Great Ocean Road, twice, visited and loved Bali, New Zealand and of course our beautiful Airlie Beach. I can’t wait to go on many more.
Margaret Perazza – Corporate Travel Specialist
The first 24 years of my life was in South Africa and Zimbabwe. I came to Australia for a 2 year working holiday and have been here ever since. My wonderful husband of 40 years and I have raised a family of 4 children and now have 10 grandchildren. Although I still love Africa, I feel very strongly that Australia is the very best country to raise a family. I love working with the Torres Strait people and after flying in and out over the last 12 years know many of them personally. My strong connection with the TSI people certainly makes my job very pleasant.
Lesley Sykes – Corporate Travel Specialist
I travel on a Kiwi Passport but have called Cairns home for the last 12 years. The climate and lifestyle here is amazing and there is always something to do – whether it be snorkelling at the reef, a fun day out at the Cairns Amateur races, browsing the Port Douglas Markets or sampling the foodie delights of the Tablelands. The majority of my working career has been in the travel industry, so travelling has always played a big part in my life. At BLT I work in the Corporate division alongside Margaret and Brent.
Brent Frazer – Corporate Travel Specialist
Originally from New Zealand, I have been in Australia for 25 years now. Most of this time has been spent in Cairns with a 2 year stint in Townsville and up until recently a 2.5 year stint on Horn Island. I have travelled across Canada and have completed an overland trip in Africa from Nairobi to Johannesburg. While in Africa I was lucky enough to experience the mountain gorillas in Uganda. More recently my travel has been to South-East Asia and Papua New Guinea. Photography is a passion of mine and when travelling you are never short on subjects!
Andrew Bowes – Commercial Manager
An avid football fan who fell in love with Papua New Guinea. Andrew travels regularly to PNG and the Solomon Islands and promotes both these countries as ‘undiscovered jewels’ in the Pacific. He explains that tourism is in its infancy here and it’s best to go now to see experience it all before it becomes too commercialised.
David Fortune – Graphic Designer
Living the Dream. I have travelled around Australia twice. Once with my mates and once with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. In the trip around Australia with my girlfriend, we lived in Cairns for 6 years. During this time, we had our first travel around the world. We then returned to Perth and got married. We did another world trip and fell in love with Mexico, Peru and Bolivia. When we returned to Australia, we studied Spanish for 3 years to be ready for our next adventure which was 3 months through Central America. Wow – that was an eye opener back then. We now have 2 beautiful boys, who we have returned to Cairns with in 2013. After all our travels, Cairns is one of the most beautiful places in the world.