Archive for tours

Starting a Photography Business: Part 55 – An Eventful Recce

The first time I left Sorrento a few years ago, after a holiday, I had a tear in my eye. No place before or since has had such an emotional reaction from me, not even my native Yorkshire. Sorrento and the Amalfi coast gets under my skin like no other.

From the outset of this venture of a photography tour, it’s been important to me that this tour is a holiday that sees fantastic view points of the area whilst experiencing it on a local level; getting a feel for the local culture and life, exploring local footpaths, tasting local food and understanding the way of life down here.

Rain took its hand in making this recce just what I needed to make the tour just what I wanted. After a day of torrential rain a rock fall made it impossible for me to get further down the coast, forcing me to stay very local to Sorrento and her peninsula. Though to be truly honest, I did curse my misfortune of not being able to explore further down the coast for a couple of days. Read More→

Starting a Photography Business: Part 48 – Read the Small Print

Faraglioni Rocks, Capri, Italy

The last few weeks have seen a fair bit of action on the photography holidays side of my business, though none of it as I would have necessarily wished. It is though, giving me an opportunity to do things a little differently.

When my new travel partner and I first got together we put pen to paper to draw up contracts so we knew what each other’s responsibilities were and what we expected of each other which has worked well and held up. What we didn’t check into fully at the start was insurance policies and trading laws.

I had spoken to Trading Standards in the UK to find out what was expected of me as photographer running tours and what insurance cover I needed. All was well, by going in with a travel agent I was covered, however, and this is a big one, the UK has some pretty stringent consumer protection in place, and rightly so, to safeguard guests’ money. It’s not necessary for an agent to be ABTA bonded, however it is necessary for an insurance policy to be in place so that any money paid in is ring-fenced. This means if any problems arise with a company becoming insolvent, guests get their money returned to them.

It is illegal to trade in the UK without this financial insurance, however in America these consumer travel laws don’t exist, and my travel partner was based in America. I was deeply concerned about this imbalance in law between our countries and then a huge blow for my travel partner. It turns out that there are draconian state laws in place in America to prevent travel agencies trading in some states unless they pay them a large bond. This effectively limits the scope of business a travel agent can do in their own country. With all this coming to light and my concerns about financial insurance we dissolved the partnership. Read More→