Early February
The mood in the office in Obertrum is electric, as the booking figures promise a great year. The new destinations for 2020 are also receiving a fantastic response from our customers.
The middle of February
Through communication with KTM – our bike manufacturer – we are informed about closed factories in China. The parts needed for our rental bikes can no longer be shipped and the delivery date for the first 350 bikes hangs in the balance.
End of February
One of our most important destinations - Italy – is severely affected by coronavirus. We hope it doesn’t get too bad and we get in touch with the guest managers who live in Italy to find out more about the situation.
Beginning of March
The situation in Italy is deteriorating fast and for the first time we are considering postponing the start of the season. A few days after this consideration, unfortunately, the time has come. For the first time in our history, we are postponing the first arrivals.
Middle of March
In the meantime, other European countries have also been affected and we are considering what to do in the event of a quarantine at Eurofun Touristik.
Friday 13.03
In the morning there is a meeting of the management, the area and team leaders. How do we manage to maintain operations in the event of a quarantine? How do we access our data remotely? How do we communicate with our customers? All of these questions and more are discussed and sometimes heatedly. Decisions are made and we start moving in the right direction. And as if we had known…a day later the Austrian government issue a ‘lockdown’ and call on the population to stay at home. This means that the majority of our employees will be informed at the weekend that they will no longer be able to come to the office on Monday and should wait for further information at home.
Monday 16.03
The ‘Eurofun Corona Department’ meets to implement the plan drawn up on Friday. First of all, a positive message: our IT department is getting what appears to be the last 15 laptops in Europe in order to equip our customer advisors with them. Remote access to the data on our server has been created. The employees are equipped with mobile phones. YES! It works! We are all happy and feel a sense of achievement – that is motivation these days. As the evening draws in we say goodbye to each other – for how long, at this point we don’t know!
Tuesday, 17.03 until today
From today we are all in home office. It’s not exactly right, as we are working with a ‘core-team’. The rest of us use overtime and holidays. We even see each other three times a week – of course not in person – but with video conferences. It’s good to regularly see the faces of colleagues. We discuss not only how to proceed, but also take a little time to chat. We also get a glimpse into the living situations of or colleagues through the pictures – who has a particularly modern, luxurious, cosy, minimalist, spacious home…yes the camera reveals a lot. I am noticed because of my almost unused kitchen. I admit it, I don’t like cooking. But I’m certainly not starving…at any rate, we don’t spoil the good mood and always see the positive. 10 steps from bed to the desk! We’ve never had such a short commute!