Always though the quiet winter months I have concentrated not only on reviewing my business but also on using my knowledge of Wales and tourism for casting around for consultancy projects.  I am also a licensed Federation of European Tourist Guides trainer.

Another sort of knowledge is of the geography of the sites to be visited from the practical constraints (can you get a coach there, where are the nearest toilets, what are hazards moving a group around? etc.) to the very positioning of the sites for when a client wants to say, visit neolithic sites in an afternoon from Caernarfon - what is feasible. Nothing beats actually visiting places to gain this type of knowledge. ​

These type of skills are incredibly difficult to teach online. As, of course, are coach microphone techniques - spotting things from the front window and describing where to look for passengers behind with only side views and doing so quickly before they have passed by and feel they've missed something.

One lady wanted to surprise her husband on their anniversary with a private town tour. I started to think. I had not been able to run food tours during the whole of 2020 because part of the raison d'être of Conwy food tours was the small artisan food producers but, because they were so small social distancing was not possible.  

May was fantastic as we were able to meet outside - albeit with limited numbers and I was able to begin my scheduled tours.  Prices have been raised to a more economic level. Last year, with the launch of the business I had deliberately kept them low knowing I would never make money but the aim was to test the tours and if you price too high at first and don't get bookings you always wonder if that was the reason. 

I have had leaflets printed with the guided tour on one side and the self-guided GPS-linked commentary tour on the reverse. The Tourist Information Centre in Conwy have been very helpful and are selling the self-guided tours as well as tickets for the guided tours.  The castle staff were also grateful for the leaflets as, when visitors find they should have pre-booked Conwy castle tickets  they ask what else they can do around town. As usual, local businesses have been very helpful as regards distributing leaflets. It is a critical part of my plan to make sure I direct clients towards our marvellous independent Conwy shops.

I continue to be nosey chatting to people around the town expanding my local knowledge.  For instance, yesterday I found a lovely man down on the quayside and learned all about the Celtic Longboats four-person  plus cox crew used for racing and also a fisherman who kindly told me what each type of pot was for from Whelks to prawns to lobsters.

I continue to teach and arrange online assessments for my wonderful Blue Badge linguist guide colleagues on the course to enable them to guide in Wales seeing things through Welsh eyes.  I also try to stop my Green Badge students getting frustrated as the only thing between them and the qualification is the Coach Guiding module and assessment which cannot be done online or socially distanced.

 With my colleagues in Wales Best Guides we launch a social enterprise arm to generate some income both for the association and for guides and win a contract from Visit Wales to help produce factsheets for the travel trade. This is welcome, both for the income boost and for  a chance to update our knowledge on the tourism product in Wales as we root out new experiences and produce suggested tours and factual on-the-ground knowledge for use by overseas and home tour operators sending clients to Wales.

My main development for my own business is work on a downloadable GPS linked audio commentary tour. The vehicle for this is the very professional voicemap platform who gave me lots of help both in timing - as the commentary has to be the right length for a leisurely stroll around the town without the listener having to stand still for too long, give good location information for what the guide is talking about and of course be of a certain quality both of sound and for the content.  This tour is now launched and available ​https://voicemap.me/tour/conwy .
I am planning to add details to my posters and leaflets and enable the tours to be sold through the Tourist Information and at the hotels and accommodation when they are allowed to reopen.  
Also, we Welsh Guides are a really co-operative bunch so I sought to share my discoveries and the folk from Voicemap ran a session in our digital Upskilling course for Wales Tourist Guides.

During the time of Covid health of myself and my clients could only be assured by implementing several measures. Some  are fairly easy such as cleanliness and sanitising. As the tours I am running are in the open air with room for social distancing, I opted not to use a mask unless clients requested. Not only would it ruin the traditional costume effect but would impede lip reading and communication of my expressions.
However, the most important measure maintaining social distancing- brings extra challenges. I teach tour guides and I am always stressing the fact that in the days of apps and recordings we have to use the advantage of being real people - show our personality, read our audience's mood, use eye contact and body language. This gets more difficult the further away our clients are - as does another important role of a guide keeping clients both safe, away from traffic etc. and comfortable out of sun, rain wind whilst also doing our best to not disturb businesses and other members of the public.

My first decision was to decide between apps on phones or self-sufficient machines.  There are quite a few apps that work between the guide's phone and the clients. Some use blue tooth, some data and some wi-fi - locally if available or via the guide carrying a portable router.  There are disadvantages and advantages in all of them. Overseas clients would find data expensive and in parts of Wales you cannot even get 3G. The apps are evolving quickly with add-on such as "find me" if clients get lost or the ability to download images such as "what this ruin looked like"  However the main disadvantage I could see was the time and complications for clients who would have to download an app. My tours are short generally less than two hours and I didn't want a large portion of that time to be wasted setting up the technology.  Also,   my primary reason for using them being constant social distancing and the variety of ages and operating systems on clients' phones meant that I wouldn't be able to just say "give me your phone and I'll sort it" So I decided to purchase "play and go" hardware.  
The main disadvantage of this - for me - was cost and thereafter maintaintance. I then had a techie friend look at specifications and bit the bullet, swallowing the cost of several hundred pounds and ordering a set from China.They took two months to arrive.Testing will be awkward as again, i am only allowed to meet one other household. How will it go? I'll let you know!