– Even if we don’t like itTrump has undoubtedly had a great impact on Greenland as a tourist destination. This is the opinion of tour guide Niels Pedersen from the Danish travel agency Nilles & Gislev Rejser.
– It’s actually very simple. When the media is full of stories about Greenland, many people want to experience the country, even if it is against a slightly sad background, says Niels Pedersen last month on board the plane from Aalborg to Nuuk.
– Even if we don’t like itTrump has undoubtedly had a great impact on Greenland as a tourist destination. This is the opinion of tour guide Niels Pedersen from the Danish travel agency Nilles & Gislev Rejser.
– It’s actually very simple. When the media is full of stories about Greenland, many people want to experience the country, even if it is against a slightly sad background, says Niels Pedersen last month on board the plane from Aalborg to Nuuk.
He is on his way to Greenland with eight guests, who in Nuuk meet four fellow travelers who fly from Copenhagen.
– Nilles & Gislev Rejser is particularly known for group trips to, for example, Germany by bus, but now we have included Greenland in the range – and so the plane becomes our bus, explains Niels Pedersen, who feels well equipped to work as a tour guide in Greenland.
– I have worked for a year as a teacher at GUX in Nuuk – and have also been an accompanying spouse when my wife has worked up here. Incidentally, I have also been an active mountain climber in my younger days. That also counts, but I think my most important qualification is that I got a taste of Greenland and love to share my experiences and my knowledge with others.
A special form of travel
Group travel is a slightly special form of travel where you are with your fellow travelers around the clock. Here, the tour guide plays a very special role when the group has to function purely socially.
– Here, of course, my pedagogical experience comes into play, because it’s like making a high school class work, says Niels Pedersen, who doesn’t have many seconds of alone time when he’s on the move.
– The tour guide or guide means everything on a group trip, says married couple Elsebeth and Per Faurholt Jensen from Frederikshavn, who are regular guests at Nilles & Gislev Rejser, with whom they have traveled several times.
– We have now tried most things – and been all over Europe with Nilles & Gislev. We have been to Southern Europe on river cruises, and we have been to the North Cape and Svalbard with the travel agency, says Elsebeth Jensen.
– It gives us security to travel with Nilles& Gislev, because the company has some really good tour guides. Only once has it gone wrong – the tour guide was a bit too thirsty – and then we got an apology from the director even before we got home.
The group is important
– The travel guide is simply the key to success for travelers like us. We are of course curious and want to know something about the places we visit. But being with other people for a week or longer is just as important – and that’s why the tour guide plays a big role. He is the glue that holds the group together.
– We have met many others on our travels, with whom we are still in contact and send greetings on birthdays and the like.
– Nilles & Gislev are good at that concept. When we are by bus, we sometimes eat at a folding table next to the bus instead of a restaurant – and then the tour guide is both cook and waiter, while he always has time to talk – and also likes to perform a bit in the evening. High spirits are important for a tour guide, the couple believes.
– We have had a lovely week in Greenland – and that is not least Niels Pedersen’s merit. He is a good tour guide that we would definitely recommend to others.
Although Nilles & Gislev travel now has Greenland on the program, it is not the travel agency that is responsible for the internship. Similar to a number of other travel agencies, the company buys the completed trip including transport, overnight stays, excursions and dinners from Ruby Rejser, which has become one of the major players on the Greenlandic market as an agent for the Greenlandic tourism operators.
Ruby Rejser has a head start
The company got a solid head start on the Greenlandic market already last year, when they themselves arranged flights between Aalborg and Nuuk with Airseven – and put together some packages that include, among other things, four days in Nuuk with a 24-hour glamping trip in Nuup Kangerlua and then three days in Ilulissat with ice fjord sailing, coffee and a visit to the Isfjord Centre.
However, due to the weather, last week’s trip to Ilulissat was cancelled.
– But it doesn’t matter. We felt very safe with Niels, who had complete control of the situation – and also quickly got an alternative program up and running, Elsebeth and Per Faurholt Jensen say on the plane on the way home.
– We are certainly not disappointed. And maybe we will come again. Of course with Nilles & Gislev, because they have control over what a group trip should contain, reads the verdict.
