Coast tourism start-up Airguides rebuilds after Covid impacts

A Peregian Beach tourism start-up seeing strong early growth was left on the brink of closure after the outbreak of Covid-19. See how the business has adapted:

A Sunshine Coast couple who turned their passion for travelling into a tourism start-up are rebuilding their business after Covid-19 threatened to shut it down.

Airguides co-founders Paul Rowsthorn and Bibi Jellema originally started their company as a travel guide app before relaunching as an adventure holiday platform in late-2019 based on customer feedback.

Operated through an online website, Airguides offer a range of ‘luxury adventure’ trips primarily in the country’s lesser-known locations as well as popular tourist destinations.

Airguides initially started their holiday packages in New Zealand then shortly after in Australia and was making about $120,000 in annual revenue in its first few months.

When the pandemic spread globally in 2020 Mr Rowsthorn said they had to pause their New Zealand tours which stemmed their income stream.

“It was a bitter pill to swallow for many months because we’d been working for five years putting everything into it and we felt like we’d built a company that was going somewhere and to have the pandemic rip that away was hard,” Mr Rowsthorn said.

“There were times where the company was close to closing down.”

In a bid to broaden their revenue streams beyond travel the couple began creating marketing campaigns the following year for local and interstate tourism boards including Noosa, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and Port Stephens.

The transition paid off and Mr Rowsthorn said they generated more than $100,000 last year from their tourism campaigns.

Paul Rowsthorn and Bibi Jellema co-founders of Airguides, a local tourism tech start-up business. Picture: Patrick Woods.

The company’s holiday packages are curated in partnership with experienced travel and nature photographers and filmmakers who help plan activities and accommodation based on their knowledge of the locations.

Mr Rowsthorn and Ms Jellema also collaborate with tourism boards and local operators in planning their getaway offers.

Recently, Airguides launched their guided tours which are travel packages run by their photographers and filmmakers who take travel groups to scenic outdoor locations and on activities such as hiking, diving, helicopter rides and more.

They also host masterclasses for landscape and underwater photography and videography.

The couple have upcoming plans to partner with celebrity chefs across Australia for food and wine tours.

Ms Jellema said the guided tours will be a key part of their business in attracting more customers and driving sales in the future.

“Our biggest focus is on our storytellers (photographers and filmmakers) and turning them into sales engines,” Ms Jellema said.

Paul Rowsthorn and Bibi Jellema co-founders of Airguides, a local tourism tech start-up business. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“They have really trusted communities on social media, their websites, and newsletters so our focus this year is to provide them with the tools they need to sell our tour packages and we incentivise them by giving them a higher percentage of the booking.”

In about three months Airguides will be conducting crowd equity funding through Melbourne-based company Birchal with the aim of raising $500,000 to expand their tours internationally beginning with Fiji.

The duo are aiming to achieve their pre-pandemic revenue levels and increase monthly growth by 20 per cent by the end of the year.