I have been in deeply reflective mood this week hence the Bob Geldof quote from “Thinking Voyager 2 type things” – check it out it has to be one of the ultimate meaning of life songs! My mood has been due to the loss of a good friend of Barratt Tours Mr Noel O’Connor from Doolin Co.Clare, Noel ran a taxi business in Doolin and was a great friend and help to all of us involved in running day tours – he died in his sleep on Sunday evening and he will be much missed, our thoughts are with all his family and friends at this difficult time.
I have been reflective as I had my lunch with Noel on Saturday in O’Connors while on tour and we had a great chat about holidays etc and whilst we both agreed times were hard in the business at present it surely will come right for next year, it really has made me think about our short time on this planet.
My thoughts are not bitter about the business but I do feel it is time for us to turn over a new leaf and stop being so nice in our battles with our competitors, we are never going to deviate from our strongly held belief that the honest will survive long term in business. By honest I mean that we try to sell our tours on merit and value, we don’t offer huge agents commission and incentives, this is how our tours are such good value after all, I heard of one operator in our sector that is actually paying more in commission than they get paid for a tour! I don’t believe this is sustainable and with information being so freely available online, I cannot believe people will be conned forever, I have said it before but we are lean and green also you can be sure we are here for the long haul maybe the saying “The bigger they are – the harder they fall” could be true here. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and sometimes I feel like spilling the beans and explaining exactly where the money that is paid to some larger operators goes – its not all Shamrocks, Sheep and Leprechauns as they might have you believe! So please get in touch and tell me that you think we are on the right track with our strategy. Or better still book one of our tours and to quote from The Commitments – Support Irelands’ hardest working tour company!
We had a great night to beat the blues on Thursday, we went to an old haunt of ours – The Trinity Rooms in Limerickwhich to be honest we felt we had outgrown as they do cater for the younger crowd, I quite like some dance music but much of it I couldn’t stick all night! When we first started going they had a separate room and dj who used to play a lot of indie stuff and it was just my kind of thing but sadly it seemed to become a victim of the “r’ word! However they have just started offering some alternative entertainment with a ska band called Skazz and they were superb, as well as playing some predictable 2 tone classics they played some real old Jamaican ska – including some infectious toe tappers, combine this with a drinks promotion and a good night was had – if you are in Limerick any Thursday in July check it out – highly recommended!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment