The postal outlet on Grampians Road wasn't profitable on its own but it provided an essential service to the community, so needed to keep running.

Things are now looking up though for the adventure company. The Queen's Birthday long weekend brought in a bumper crowd and co-owner Adrian Manikas is hopeful that by the end of the year things might be heading back towards normal.

"Surprisingly midweek is as busy as the weekends at the moment," he said. "There's more traffic so more people to stop in the shop."

Absolute Outdoors runs rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing, stand up paddle boarding and biking trips around the Grampians region.

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So far they have done three or four sessions under a new format to meet COVID-19 guidelines.

Each tour is a single group, whether it be two people or six, so that social distancing rules can be maintained.

"We're still struggling with working out how to sanitise between each session, but we're getting there," he said.

Domestic tourism continues to be a main driver for the Grampians and the business - which runs water-based activities on Lake Bellfield and land-based at various locations - is hoping to tap into people wanting to escape outdoors after the lockdown.

"We've got some good ideas as a group for Halls Gap as a tourism spot," Mr Manikas said.

"We should see things happen over the next couple of years. We're coming out of a pretty dark time."

The other side of the business is the Grampians Peaks Walking Company, which specialises in walking tours and is developing ideas to capitalise on the long-distance Grampians Peaks Trail, due to open next year.

"People come to Halls Gap and pick up gear, anything they've missed and we can transport them to the start of a walk and pick them up at the end, or they can walk back into town," he said

As sections of the Grampians Peaks Trail are completed the business will expand. A three-day loop out of Halls Gap already exists and two further loops are expected to be finished near Mt Zero and Dunkeld ahead of the main 13-day trekking trail.

"We'll run a scheduled bus service along the trail and have food and water drop offs at sites," Mr Manikas said.

The service, using a 14-seater bus, will allow people to access the trail at multiple points and open up the option to complete the hike over several trips.

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Mr Manikas said that recent reports that adventure tourism was struggling to stay in business due to difficulties getting public indemnity insurance hadn't been the case for Absolute Outdoors.

"We cancelled our public indemnity insurance when we stopped opening as we had to cut back where we could," he said.

"When we started up it took us three days to get it in place, and at a cheaper rate due to a lower projected income this year."

The next step will be school camps returning to the Grampians, with an early resumption recently flagged up for the spring.

Mr Manikas said they were a key component to providing consistent bookings for the business - with schools during the week and tourists at the weekend evening out trade and allowing local employees steady work.

"We're weather dependent, we're expecting it to return to a normal winter, with it being better in the school holidays," he said. "It will pick up in the spring."