It was the early 1990s when John Wikstrom and Stuart Norris spotted a missing link in modern tourism.

Visitors were enjoying their experiences, but attractions were missing out on an extra income stream, not to mention the vital added value of word-of-mouth recommendation.

Sure, people would go home and spread the word about their great vacation, but after a major holiday there was no material trigger in the visitors’ souvenir portfolio to remind them to tell their friends about the great time they’d had at particular sites.

The Wikstrom and Norris solution was deceptively simple.

They identified Queenstown, New Zealand as the ideal location, and the mountain-top Skyline Gondola and Restaurant as the perfect venue.

Visitors were photographed boarding the gondola at the base station as they set off to enjoy spectacular views and great food.

While they were having the experience of a lifetime, John and Stuart were busy shuttling back and forth to photographic processors by moped, having pictures developed, printed and dried on old-fashioned one-hour turnaround technology.

Then it was back to the base building to hand-mount the shots in attractive cardboard frames, in time to greet the visitors as they left the complex, and offer them the perfect souvenir shot.

Despite the labour intensive routine, the project was an overnight success all round.

The Skyline experience was enhanced to a new degree and left resonating in visitors’ memories by a tangible reminder, and the quality of the product, married to an ultra-high service and sales standard brought a significant extra income to the attraction.

Now, some 10 years later, Magic Memories has embraced the digital photography revolution, sold the moped and broken the mould in tourism photography.

The company’s systems have been installed at attractions throughout New Zealand, and customised to deal with all manner of conditions.

They’re in underground venues, attractions high in the air, sites out to sea, way up on ski areas, on river banks capturing high speed jet boats, in bars – wherever there’s tourism in New Zealand, there’s tourism photography. And yes, Magic Memories is still at Skyline Gondola.

In 2001, new shareholder and head of technology Irik Anderson drove the pioneering proprietary coding and data-basing technique which enabled individually identified images to be uploaded to the internet – instant viewing and sharing of holiday pictures worldwide.

It was a revolution that not only improved the visitor experience, it played a part in expanding New Zealand’s place on the world holiday stage too.

The ‘good times down under’ message was instantly global many times over, and every company using Magic Memories technology had its reach exploded beyond all existing parameters.

But that was just one of many reformations courtesy of a company which has become synonymous with development and momentum in its field.

Fourth shareholder, Howard De Vries, earned his place on the company top table thanks to a visionary streak which has been responsible for an R and D division constantly challenging the boundaries of service provision - and winning.

At Magic Memories the only constant is change, and the company base in Queenstown is a centre of innovation and adaptation, driven by a dedicated R&D team committed to making a difference on a daily basis.

Finding the missing link was just the first job – Perfecting the solution is a daily campaign.