Tour operators are not running out of work at the moment, even though no bookings are coming in and no trips are being taken. Since the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, working hours have been spent entirely on processing rebookings and cancellations. Stations in the south, where the most important sales period of the year was about to begin, have been hit particularly hard. "The lockdown came exactly one day before we were due to open the station in Giverola," says Martin Rhyner from BikeHoliday. They hope to open the station on the Costa Brava at the end of May after all and extend the spring season a little. In the fall, they want to start at the beginning of September for once. The BikeHoliday station in Sardinia has been hit harder, as it is not expected to open at all this year.

The people at Abenteuerreisen.ch are working on similar tasks. "We had to repatriate all our teams from the canceled Cape Epic in South Africa," explain Martin Bissig and Michel Juhasz. But at least they were able to rebook all the teams without incurring any costs and offer the starting places for the race in 2021. They expect a drop in sales of at least 20 percent for the year as a whole. Cancellations of trips are also keeping Christian Keller from Mountainbikereisen.ch busy. "Fortunately, our business has been very good in recent years. During the boom years, we were able to set aside enough reserves to at least get through this crisis financially," he explains.While larger travel companies are able to absorb the situation to some extent thanks to their structures, the lockdown is taking its toll on individual companies. One of them is Lukas Stöckli. "The situation is tough, as I earn almost my entire salary from April to September," he says, explaining his situation. The situation is hitting him with full economic force. Combined with the uncertainty about how long this situation will last, the situation is very nerve-wracking. But above all, he also misses guiding and the bike experiences with his guests.

Exceptionally high customer loyalty

A common feature of the tour operators is an exceptionally high level of customer loyalty. For example, Abenteuerreisen.ch has not yet received a single cancellation of a mountain bike trip. Lukas Stöckli's customers have shown downright merciful loyalty, launching a donation campaign so that Stöckli can at least cope with the situation financially. He is extremely touched that so many people are standing by him. "One of my regular guests even said: Luki, you are systemically relevant to me."

It is this solidarity in particular that gives the travel companies confidence. "The lockdown and the coronavirus in general shocked us at first. But thanks to our brilliant team and the guides, we will get through the situation and are looking forward to a cool time after corona," says Martin Rhyner from BikeHolidays. Abenteuerreisen.ch is blowing the same horn: "We are an owner-managed small company and are not letting the lockdown take away our passion. We are using the time to make our adventure trips even better with our partners around the world."Treating the precious commodity of travel with more respect

Christian Keller from Mountainbikereisen.ch strikes a more thoughtful note when it comes to the future. Travel has been under pressure for some time due to the climate debate. Now corona is adding to it. It will probably take years to recover from this. "But perhaps a little humility and a more respectful approach to the valuable commodity of travel is not such a bad thing." In other words: the future will be good, but possibly very different from what we imagined until recently.