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About Us
I was born and grew up in Hamburg, Germany. After having a motorbike accident I became a pushbike fan. I had no idea that this would be the start of a long career.
It started 1980 with my first private bike tour through Ireland. After writing a part of a bike tour guidebook a tour operator became aware of me. The following season I was guiding his clients through Ireland. A few years later I founded my own company. The amount of clients grew slowly but steadily.
In 2001, I moved to Tasmania permanently. At that time nobody was offering proper bike tours here. I saw the potential, Tourism Tasmania did not (“we cannot support you, it is not worth it”). So I did their job and promoted bike riding in Tasmania. After half a dozen disappointing years with huge losses it finally took off.
Since then the business has grown, we now own a fleet of 125 rental bikes in 2 locations at the opposite side of the world. However, I deliberately kept the number of clients to a level where I do not need any employees. That decision was made after some bad experiences with seasonal tour guides. To further bring down the running cost I do neither have a modern website nor expensive brochures. The tourbus does not need any repayments. This concept of low fixed cost has proven to be very effective. My clients are happy as I do forward savings to them, times of low business are much easier to overcome, I was never in any financial trouble and always paid bills immediately. Even more important: Green Island Tours Tasmania will survive the Corona virus crises without any loans.
Green Island Tours Tasmania is still family run, independent and locally based.
The offerings have changed over time, but the concept has not: personal attention to every guest, proper and honest advice, good accommodation and a fair price are more important for me than a quick turn around and / or high profit. I am still flying to Ireland every Australian winter to look after my clients personally. This all is a lot of work and results in a low hourly wage rate. A competitor from Hobart gave up a few years ago for that reason. But I like what I am doing and our clients do benefit from my passion.
As the demand for supported group tours has declined over the years we do not offer those anymore.
I put in a lot of effort, time and money keeping the rental bikes at a very high maintainance level. My clients are often surprised that they do work so well - despite the low rental price. INnmy anything much more would be a rip-off, what I do not want to do with my clients.
So, if you have any desire to see this beautiful island just contact me that I can make your dream tour a reality.
I am looking forward to your enquiry!
Manfred Kempeneer
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