IF you're looking for a good reason to tour the region, look no further than Bathurst Tours.
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In December, 2021, the business was taken over by Bathurst Community Transport, which for 20 years has been helping vulnerable people get to and from appointments.
Bathurst Community Transport chief executive officer Kathryn Akre said bringing the two businesses together made a "lot of sense".
"We do people transport and we know our region, so it makes an awful lot of sense to expand the business, use the vehicles more economically, and run tours and transfers," she said.
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The first year was challenging, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the tours, but she said the business is "really gathering momentum now".
What people may not realise about Bathurst Tours is that the profits go to Bathurst Community Transport, helping to cover the costs associated with keeping its fleet of vehicles on the road.
"The whole purpose of this is the Bathurst Tours profits are reinvested into the Bathurst Community Transport business, so everything is just supporting transport for vulnerable people in our community," Ms Akre said.
"If you go on a tour - and everyone needs to go on a wine tour - you're doing good for the community, so that is pretty cool."
At a time where costs have gone up, the connection Bathurst Community Transport has to Bathurst Tours has an important role to play in ensuring the service can keep people moving.
"It just makes sense to do something we already do well and expand," Ms Akre said.
"If people are going to do wine tours anyway, we'd love them to do it with us and then we can reinvest that money and it keeps a number of vehicles on the road."
Bathurst Tours offers a selection of cultural and heritage tours through Bathurst and beyond, including working with elders to introduce people to local Aboriginal history and culture.
"We run a variety of tours locally," tours manager Domino Houlbrook-Cove said.
"One of the things we're trying to do is obviously promote Bathurst as a tourism destination to locals and visitors alike, and then we also do tours to Orange and lots of different transfers for business events and weddings."
The business also specialises in building custom tours, where customers can visit the sites they want to see.
This includes family history tours and private tours to popular destinations.
"It's all about making it personalised. That's a big part of what we do," Ms Houlbrook-Cove said.
All people have to do is call and make an inquiry.
"We can design anything for anyone." Ms Akre said.
"... I would say about a half of what we do is custom tours. Someone rings us and says 'I want to', 'Can I?' and we say, 'Let's see what we can do'."
To find out more, contact Bathurst Tours via its website or call 1300 728 321.