TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
IF you’ve ever been on a holiday with a walking tour operator you’ll know how passionate the company and guides are about what they do. But COVID-19 meant there were no people travelling anywhere and this was bad for business. However, as travel restrictions ease these operators are getting ready for the rest of the 2020 walking season and beyond. Great Walks finds out what’s going on.
Mike Edmonson, alpine guide and photographer
What has your company been doing during lockdown?
We had out first lockdown during the fires, then we opened up briefly for two trips before the lockdown with the virus. I decided as a local of Kosciuszko to upgrade my camera equipment and get out to do as much solitary exploration photography trips as I could with the inspiration to take many great new photographs of Kosciuszko NP and Jindabyne where I live. Plus market my gallery photography sales and trips, regularly building up my profile on Instagram and Facebook.
Now that people are free to travel again what destinations are you focussing on and do you have anything new?
I specialise in my backyard i.e. Kosciuszko NP and Jindabyne areas which have a great variety of seasons, from wildflowers in summer on my Australia’s Ten Peaks walks to the snow and my snow camping adventures in winter. This winter we have specialised snow camping trips for either snowshoers, skiers, crosscountry skiers and snowboarders. I introduce them how to safely snow camp etc.
Hidden Italy walking tours
What has your company been doing during lockdown?
Bookings stopped happening pretty quickly. Our busy periods in Italy are May (spring) and September (autumn). As the situation unfolded we quickly realised that the May tours wouldn’t be going ahead. So we decided to hunker down and wait for September.
We used the spare time to review and consolidate our procedures and materials. When it became clear that September was going to be very quiet as well and international travel is going to be problematic for some time,
