The Challenge of Staffing a Tourism Business as we plan for the 2021 – 2022 Season
Some of the River Valley staff, pre-covid There is no doubt that hospitality and tourism are people industries. Lousy service – there is a post for a future date! – can quickly break a business, damaging both its reputation and its finances. The key to excellent service is having great people. Having great people [...]
After Operating a Tourism Business for Over 30 Years, What Do I Think Success Means?
Whether we are conditioned to believe, or whether it is innately within us, the desire for success can be strong but not uniform in humans. Of course, the rub is, the definition of success is a slippery thing, both changing over time and reflecting life circumstances. I have learned a few things regarding the pursuit [...]
What has a Papal Indulgence and Carbon Offsetting got in Common?
It was the year 1095. The Moslem Seljuk Turks were threatening the Christian Byzantine Empire, whose capital was Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul. They were also threatening Christian communities throughout Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the ease of passage for pilgrims to the Holy Land – modern-day Israel and surrounding area. At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban [...]
Why River Valley Lodge is a Great Venue for a PDC
I was challenged by one of the tutors for our October Permaculture Design Certificate course – Guenther Andraschko - to write a piece about why River Valley Lodge is an excellent venue for such a course. This challenge followed Guenther visiting us in late autumn. First some background River Valley Lodge is situated in the [...]
How Did the 2020 – 2021 Season Work Out for River Valley?
Sometimes I think you have to be careful with thinking about what you wish for. For quite some time, a few years in fact, I would say the family as a whole have thought and talked about taking River Valley in a different direction. The questions so often revolved around what this new direction looked [...]
Designing for the Future – the River Valley Permaculture Design Certificate Course
When we think about having a lighter touch on the earth, what no doubt comes to mind at first thought is the likes of recycling, planting a few trees and maybe less fossil-fueled travel, especially in big aircraft heading overseas. However, if we are honest, we don’t know what to do beyond this to make [...]
The Explosion of Farm to Table Offerings. Why?
For many years, a few restaurants, cafes, and accommodation places have offered some form of farm to table or paddock to plate style food. Of late, there has seemed to be a bit of an explosion in this field. Pick up any travel-related magazine, and some luxury lodge is touting that some at least of [...]
Is Tourism an Extractive or Stewardship Industry?
Milford Sound, New Zealand When I, and I imagine most people, think of mining, we think of enormous holes in the ground with colossal machinery lumbering like ants upon the devastation. Whether it be mountain top removal for coal, mineral extraction for precious metals or the grotesqueness of tar sand operations, we all have a [...]
The Story of Green Gold and How It Relates to Our Landscape
As I sit here in my office writing this post, we are experiencing light and very welcome, warm rain outside. Our parched landscape needs this moisture. While this summer has not been as dry as some we have endured over the last few years; it was still more than dry enough. Over the last several [...]
