Tales from a supermarket car park…..
Its 10.15pm and I have just come out of the supermarket, I started my car, drove about 20 metres towards the exit and then it started. A big jolt, the dashboard lit up like Blackpool at Christmas and a plume of smoke bellowed out the back of the car. On a normal day, not great news but the fact that we are off on a road trip to the French Alps tomorrow makes it an even greater source of concern. Anyway, what else can you do, other than phone the recovery team and sit back and think about a few things? So here I am, sat in a very quiet supermarket car park, thinking about the one thing that for the past year, has been almost continuously on my mind.......Keyhole International.
Starting a travel business, 6 months before the worst global pandemic known for at least 2 generations has not made this process any less challenging but actually as I sit here, my thoughts about where I am in a metaphorical sense, are actually pretty positive. On LinkedIn a few weeks ago, I wrote a post which thanked a lot of people who have played a significant role in the process so far. Don’t worry, I am not about to repeat myself. I am however, going to acknowledge how important it is to surround yourself with positive and knowledgeable people that you can bounce ideas off and certainly who can help you make those ideas become a reality. The lockdown allowed me time to reflect on the previous 6 months and also to plan for the future. Importantly it also gave me the opportunity to develop my relationships with the people that I have met along the path that has got me to this point. Through those conversations, it became clear that I needed to diversify away from just the schools’ market and that Keyhole International needed to expand its portfolio so that I could offer more than just academic learning experiences. So, this is what I have done. Through my own contacts and the huge number of business partners that I can access through the membership of the Travel Network Group, I am now able to offer experiences in three main areas of this vast travel industry. These main areas are Bucket List Adventures, Group Touring Trips and Learning Experiences and although travel as a whole is still very much in the back of people minds, Keyhole International will survive this pandemic and I will be ready and waiting to help people build their travel dreams once they feel confident enough to do so. Until then though, there is definitely one thing that is keeping me very busy and that is the Lions rugby tour to South Africa in 2021. It is somewhat appropriate that one of the biggest bucket list trips possible just happens to be the one that I am using to launch the bucket list side of Keyhole International. In 2009, I was very fortunate to be able to put a BIG tick in the “Go on a Lions tour” box of my own personal bucket list and over the past few months, I have been offered a small but significant number of incredible packages for next summer’s Springboks vs Lions test series. The tour operators in South Africa who I have the relationship with are incredible people, who run even more incredible businesses. They have been in the industry for a number of years and their own contacts lists within South Africa are as long as my arm and then some. This is a huge deal for a me, I genuinely did not think that I would get an opportunity like this until I was much further down the line and was a lot more established than I am now. However, very rarely, should you look a gift horse in the mouth and so I am very excited about being able to offer these fantastic packages. Lions tours are incredible experiences and these packages have been designed to allow the group to experience the rugby and the country in equal measures but importantly not make you feel like you are being transported around on a big red conveyor belt of rugby fans. These groups will be small, intimate groups (22-people max)and once the groups are confirmed, I will be dedicating myself to cramming in as much “added value” as possible so that whoever signs up will get exactly what they have paid for, plus a few special surprises along the way. Whatever, these add-ons will be, it’s those extra little bits that will make the group feel that they have had an experience that they could not have got anywhere else, certainly for the price that it is all being offered for.
So, there we are, the golf tours, the wine tours, the academic subject trips, may have to wait for a while, as might the bucket list adventures of hiking to Machu Picchu but the Lions tour is a GO and I am here if you would like to discuss your options.
Until then, I will just sit back, wait for the recovery service and start to think about heading to France, where I can sample some of the fine local produce and maybe even find time to not think about Keyhole International for a while (well maybe anyway).
#bucketliststhroughkeyhole
#grouptouringthroughkeyhole
#learningthroughkeyhole