Sometimes in life opportunities present themselves that you have to embrace … and recently I took a leap of faith and launched the Tasmanian Guide Agency with two of my industry colleagues.
During my role with Tourism Tasmania, it became evident that many Inbound Tour Operators struggled to find and secure professional Tour Guides for their guests whilst in Tasmania. I was also offered additional guiding jobs but due to my existing demands, I was never able to assist.
I pondered the idea for 6 months or so and in May I casually mentioned it to my trusted colleague Alex, where we work in the Adventure Tour Guiding team at TasTAFE. We share an office and have many conversations about the industry, tour guiding and of course our hopes and dreams. This was an idea that I didn’t want to go alone and Alex expressed interest.
Unbeknownst to me, his best buddy – Rob Knight, rang Alex two days later with excitement in his voice! Rob had a business idea that he wanted to chat with Alex about and arranged a catch up on the weekend. It turns out that Rob also came to Alex with exactly the same idea – as he too works for Tourism Tasmania and had also heard of the challenges of securing professional guides on a freelance basis in the State. The worlds had aligned!
Early the next week we all met up and talked about the concept further. It has been a flurry of business meetings, development of a website, Facebook page, interviews and applying for all our necessary licenses, before we truly ‘go to market’. We are holding on for the ride!
Today is a momentous day as we had our first ‘official trip’ with a mother and daughter travelling from New York and San Francisco in search of our unique fauna in Tasmania. They are in good hands with our experienced guide who has a passion for nature, wildlife and most importantly … sharing that with visitors from far off shores.
We look forward to evolving and learning on this new found journey!
The Poppy Files 
awesome