More than a detour into the garden world: This is how a Starnberg travel agency keeps afloat

Marc Thallmair from Starnberg actually puts together exclusive trips to Spain or Asia for his customers.

This year he retrained, built garden sheds and cut hedges for others - so that he can continue to pay the rent of his Starnberg travel agency.

Starnberg

- The leaves in Marc Thallmair's garden were left lying down last.

On an area of ​​around 400 square meters on the slope, which he had painstakingly laid out after building the house in 2018.

Wheelbarrows for wheelbarrows and - with a little support - excavator shovel for excavator shovel.

That year Thallmair was busy in other people's gardens.

He had to come up with something.

His previous business model had collapsed.

The 46-year-old stands in the foliage in his garden shed with an autumn jacket and hair that has been gelled up, and tells of his existence: the travel agency on Ludwigstrasse in Starnberg.

In times of online bookings, he has specialized in golfing vacationers and exclusive trips.

For example, he plans six weeks in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for his customers - including flights, transfers, accommodation, excursions, boat trips and swimming stops.

“It's not that easy on the Internet,” he says.

Only rebookings and cancellations

But in this pandemic that was no longer possible.

From March to June, Thallmair and his colleague were still busy with rebooking and cancellations.

“Enough to do, but no profit.” This is how he sums up the time before the complete break-in.

And he emphasizes: "We have been affected by Corona for more than a year." Some of the trips that were canceled this year were already booked in September 2019.

And it won't be easy in the future either, Thallmair fears.

“Summer 2021 is already fully booked.” There is not much he can sell anymore.

Garden maintenance as a new business idea

But people in and south of Munich will also tend their garden in summer 2021.

And that's where Thallmair comes in.

He offers his services via the tradesman search portal my-hammer.de: cutting hedges, building garden sheds, installing robotic lawnmowers and lawn sprinklers and more.

He got his first order in July.

He whipped up an entire large garden in Grünwald.

"It looked really wild there," says Thallmair and shows photos on his smartphone.

Before, afterwards.

What does he enjoy about his new job?

“You can see immediately what you've done.” And why is he doing it?

"So that I can continue to pay the rent of the travel agency."

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First pillar: Thallmair operates a travel agency - a difficult business area in times of pandemics.

© Andrea Jaksch

The retraining has paid off so far.

The 46-year-old reports that he is getting more inquiries than he can manage.

“It's nice to help people who cannot do it themselves or who cannot do it healthily.

Not everyone dares to do small concreting work or laying tiles. ”But thanks to contact restrictions and lockdown, people had the time and inclination to take care of nature on their doorstep.

And some of the professional landscapers were fully booked.

The chance for career changers Thallmair.

About his competencies, he says, half jokingly: “I have acquired well-founded half-knowledge.” However, he was able to fall back on horticultural experience, not just since building the house in 2018.

Travel booking in the middle of the garden

One day Thallmair got a call while he was gardening.

A woman interested in a trip to the Seychelles.

The archipelago off the east coast of Africa has become one of the few long-distance destinations that can be reached relatively easily.

The call was a moment in which Thallmair was happy about his two professional pillars.

He benefits from switching between the office - even in Corona times, bookkeeping does not take care of itself - and his new job in the fresh air.

Also in terms of health: “My physiotherapist says that is very good.” So it is very likely that the professional trip to the garden world is more than a detour for him.