Meet Leona Zheng: Founder & Principal, Meridian Span Strategic Advisors
Leona Zheng is the Founder & Principal of Meridian Span Strategic Advisors, a boutique tourism consultancy dedicated to helping tourism businesses unlock global opportunities through travel trade development, international market strategy, and export readiness.
With almost three decades of experience in British Columbia’s tourism industry, Leona has built her career at the intersection of tourism enterprises, destination organizations, and international travel trade.
She began her career in 1998 with a leading Japanese Receptive Tour Operator, gaining hands-on experience in inbound tourism, tour operations, and Asian visitor markets.
She later joined Destination British Columbia, where she spent nearly two decades as Sales Manager, Global Receptive Tour Operators, collaborating with tourism businesses, destination marketing organizations, and international travel partners to expand market access and strengthen trade relationships.
Known for her practical, results-oriented approach, Leona combines strategic insight with hands-on industry experience to help tourism businesses turn opportunities into measurable outcomes.
Throughout her career, Leona has advised hundreds of tourism businesses, destination organizations, and industry partners across British Columbia, helping them refine positioning, improve export readiness, deepen travel trade engagement, and expand into new international segments.
The Meridian Span Solution
Leona has observed consistent challenges across the tourism industry over the years, While tourism businesses deliver strong visitor experiences, many face constraints in fully realizing their growth potential in a complex global marketplace. These typically include limited market access, unclear positioning within key traveller segments, underdeveloped trade relationships, and gaps in export readiness.
Meridian Span Strategic Advisors was established to help tourism businesses overcome these constraints and elevate performance in both domestic and international markets.
Through experience-driven, implementation-focused strategy, the consultancy refines positioning, enhances travel trade capability, improves market alignment, and supports more effective engagement with priority audiences.
How Leona Works with Clients: Unlocking Global Opportunities for Tourism Businesses
Leona works directly with tourism businesses to translate market potential into measurable expansion.
Her approach is grounded in three core principles:
- Strategic Clarity: Defining focused positioning and identifying the most viable growth pathways within evolving tourism markets.
- Market Access & Travel Trade Development: Strengthening distribution readiness, partnerships, and international reach by helping businesses access the right channels and build meaningful industry relationships.
- Executing Excellence: Delivering clear, actionable strategies designed for real-world application and measurable commercial impact.
By combining industry expertise with practical implementation, Meridian Span helps tourism businesses transform potential into performance and ambition into lasting success.
To learn more about how Leona supports tourism businesses, visit Meridian Span’s Services page.