Business is still very quiet, we are trying to run all of our tours but it really is a struggle apart from the competition we are currently facing we have the continuing misery of volcanic ash that is currently causing chaos to aviation and now even disrupting Trans Atlantic flights so it is not good for visitor numbers.
Mention of competition has really got us thinking this week, we wonder is price everything in peoples buying decisions, if a company were a little bit more expensive but offered an experience that was streets apart from the “cram them in at any price” attitude that seems to prevail with our competitors would there be a market? We think there might be but we would really love to hear your thoughts. We are resigned to never competing on price or the “incentives” paid to booking staff but we really could win on quality, we have an idea burning in the back of our head but would people pay a little more for something that was absolutely fantastic and unique?
We are always thinking of new ideas and I must admit its hard to critique them when there are only 2 of us particularly when the idea really does mean risking a lot. We were involved with a great venture in tourism until 2007 which was the Tourism Learning Networks, this was set up by Failte Ireland and brought together small and medium tourism enterprises for joint training and gave great networking opportunities, it is very sorely missed by me as we were lucky enough to have a great company facilitating our area network who made a wonderful job of it but sadly all funding was cut and it died. Being a small company in the midst of all this doom and recession is an exceptionally frightening and even lonely place to be at the moment and now, more than ever we need some encouragement from government and more importantly support and development because I can sense that many small enterprises might not make it through which given the wealth of commitment and talent in our sector would be an absolute tragedy. If anyone from tourism agencies reads my ramblings please take note, these are exceptional times in tourism and we need exceptional measures, I hate to be political but if we were farmers we would have received an aid package by now!
Now I don’t want you, dear reader to think Barratt Tours is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, we fortunately are very prudent and have not fallen into the over investment trap many companies did in our so called ‘boom years” and you can be sure we are working on our 2011 plans but there is no point in pulling punches about the situation at the moment – it is not very good, so come on, cheer me up and book a tour with Irelands, most honest resilient and hard working tour company, I think we deserve it and I know you wont regret it!
As usual on a Saturday I’am heading to The Cliffs of Moher and it is a gorgeous day, cool but clear and sunny, I have small group but they are great fun and are a good cross section of young and old, traffic has been easy and I’am relaxed with the world in general despite the misery! Today is really reminding me why I love this job, people are enthusiastic about what we see and there is a lovely interaction between everyone, days like this are a real pleasure!
Now some of you might be wondering if we are having any fun at the moment, well we decided we deserved a night out in Limerick on Thursday night so we had a great meal then headed to Smyths bar where we saw a good band called Sonic, they played a great mix of stuff including some more off beat indie stuff, I thought it was a great set and it really was good to get away from it all for a few hours! I forgot that I haven’t mentioned my books that I’am reading at the moment so I promise to put that right next week.
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