busnews.com.au July 2019 ABC^47town it brings great satisfaction.”
Catering for an older crowd means
that one has to consider their abilities,
Sandison added.
“The challenge is to be sensible; don’t
make the days too long when you’re on
tour. We try to get them out of a hotel
by 8.30am and be in the next hotel by
4.30pm at the latest, so they have a bit
of rest before they get to dinner.
“As long as you give them three to
four places to stop and see during the
day and a reasonable place for lunch I
think there’s not much of a hassle.
“Most of them are not hard to
handle; some of them are set in
their ways, but they’re really quite
flexible overall. They’ll run with the
show and they make friends easily.”
The international tours are a hit
amongst Australians – it takes the
Sandisons up to a month to create
an itinerary.
However, due to other companies’
price cutting they’ve been faced with
stiff competition.
“Some of the companies are cutting
it to the bone and that’s a bit of a
problem; we do Norfolk Island every
year and now there’s a company doing
Norfolk Island at about the same cost
as what it costs us for the airline ticket
so they must be hammering down the
hotels and the tour operators on Norfolk
to get a better price to keep it going,”
Sandison explained.MOVING RIGHT ALONG
Domestically, the company has been
struggling due to a lack of parking spots
in major cities, with drivers forced to
leave the location upon drop off.
“We like to have our drivers stay
with the passengers all the time, but if
you can’t park outside the venue you
obviously can’t stay with the passengers,
so you have to go away and come back
when the show is over or wherever
they’re going,” he said.
“I think it spoils the industry because
when the driver and the hostess can
stay with the people they’re doing a far
better service, so it’s unfortunate.”
Along with her office duties, Kathy
also does three tours to major shopping