Rikki Dunnage, co-owner of Island Travel and The Front Porch, has lost count of the number of people who have helpfully reminded him that he and partner Edward Cox have not one but two businesses in the sectors worst-hit by the pandemic.

’If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard that recently - but we’re still here, both businesses are still operating and it’s nice to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel now which makes a big difference.’ He says.

The hospitality industry is very much open for business again and things are picking up nicely at The Front Porch.

Rikki says: ’The worry [after lockdown] was whether people were going to feel happy going out and mixing again but it’s been a really good response, everyone’s been pretty responsible.

’We worked the first weekend and it was so nice to see people happy, to see smiling faces and people out and enjoying themselves. That was nicer than anything.’

So, the green shoots of recovery are showing, but there it still a way to go to build the business back as strong as it was before the pandemic. Rikki says that, much as he has been very grateful for the government support they have received, it didn’t take account of wastage, including - look away now boys - pouring away beer which had exceeded its shelf life after the first lockdown arrived out of the blue, and the rent they still had to pay on premium Douglas premises.

One thing in their favour has been the café pavement licence they hold which has allowed people to drink safely out of doors: ’We were lucky enough to have that space, a lot of pubs unfortunately don’t,’ says Rikki.

As one of their companies is showing signs of recovery, what about the other side of their business, travel, a sector which is still dogged by uncertainty and a mass of seemingly arbitrary and sometimes contradictory restrictions and regulations.

For the whole of the travel industry, it’s been a long haul (no pun intended), even for a successful, multi-award winning company like Island Travel, as Rikki explains: ’We have not been able to sell or send someone on holiday since February last year.

’And the way travel works is that you get commission eight weeks before a customer is due to travel, so when we had the first lockdown we had literally eight weeks of customers’ bookings and we had to refund them every single penny.

’This was money we had already spent on ongoing business costs so that ended up with a sizeable debt without us even doing anything, just because of international travel being stopped.

’That was at the start of the first lockdown which we are still paying back.’

The travel industry had already been going through a rough patch with the Thomas Cook collapse, followed by the Flybe collapse, even before the pandemic hit.

Rikki says: ’We had a team of five at the start of the pandemic and now it’s just me and Ed. We had to scale back everything to be as lean as possible.

’There’s been a few times when it gets to you a bit and you think you might throw the towel in but then you think: "travel is going to come back one day and it should come back bigger than ever really - everyone’s going to need a break".’

He and Ed had coincidentally moved the Island Travel premises off the high street and into offices above the Front Porch before the first lockdown: ’That was a saving which in hindsight was perfect for this last couple of years. We’d love to get back to the high street and we aim to get back and get a presence there, but we need some clearer times really.’

Which rather begs the question: is there still a place for a high-street travel presence? Rikki certainly thinks so: ’Definitely I’ve been in travel a long, long time and I think it’s come full circle, especially now with everything that’s happened. The confidence when you book with an agent is going to be more important than ever.

’You hear horror stories about airline websites taking six months to get people their refunds so that will help especially retail agents massively because we can do that for you, and much quicker.’

So where does travel, especially international travel stand now?

Rikki says: ’There are so many unknowns and so many mixed messages from the UK Government.

’The traffic light system [which classifies each country as either red, amber or green] is too much of a minefield for us to consider.

’And, for example, Portugal [classified as green] has opened up but when you get there everything closes at 10.30pm and everyone has to wear face masks.

’I think travel will mostly be people visiting friends and family in the UK for a few more months, until it’s a clearer picture.’

And, as Rikki reminds us, it’s not just travel off the island that will be an issue.

He says: ’There are all the hoteliers on the Isle of Man [to consider]. We’ve got a lot of friends in hospitality here and without the trade for two years, that in itself is a huge thing to miss out on.’

What does he think about the idea of testing people on arrival as they have been doing in Jersey?

Rikki says: ’I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. It sound like a good idea: there’s so many unknowns but we need the tourism in the island and the travel industry in the UK needs to start getting back to life because, for some of the big companies, the losses are colossal. Jet2 and Tui: the money they’ve lost is crazy and our industry does need a kick start really.’

When international travel does get going again, there is obviously an expectation that prices will be going up.

Rikki says: ’We’ve been looking at prices for next year and the cost of trips year on year is going up quite a lot. But it will probably average out once they start putting more capacity on.’

We’ve all learned lessons during the pandemic. For Rikki it has been: ’Survival: trying to adapt to make sure we’re still here. And working from home - we’ve had the same challenges as everybody else, being in lockdown and not being in the office a lot. It’s got to me like it’s got to everybody but especially with two businesses when you’re not making any money. It’s quite difficult when it’s your only source of income and when there’s no clear ending to it, especially in the middle of lockdown when we just needed a date to work towards.

’Its just been resilience and just crack on really.’