This week we’re catching up with Hannah from DayTripper, a VisitEngland accredited Tour Operator based in Liverpool.
Please can you tell us who you are and what you do?
Hi! My name is Hannah Wileman and I run the Liverpool Tour Company ‘Daytripper’. I am married, have a lovely daughter who’s 5 years old and I live in Crosby. I love pancakes, a perfect cup of tea, the great outdoors and cosy socks. I will never understand why people take Yoda from Star Wars so seriously as I just start thinking about Fozzie Bear every time he speaks. But that’s just a little about me.
Daytripper is a Visit England accredited Tour Operator based in Liverpool. We offer daily walking tours of Liverpool, day trips around the UK by coach and private tours for groups. We started running trips for International students at Language Schools in the city, then we expanded to University groups and locals through the activity website Meet Up.
How has covid-19 changed the way you work? Have you had to adapt your business model?
After lockdown in March, we adapted to the measures and started again in September this year. We found that although we were ‘Good to Go’ – there was no one to take! However, we started to see that our local walking tours were still being booked throughout and now we have adapted our model and are going to market our business locally.
We have created a series of mini experiences in Liverpool for anyone and everyone in the city! We have put together 3 amazing tours of Liverpool that will be scheduled daily and can be booked online:
Music and Film Tour
The Baltic Triangle Tour
Maritime History Tour
We are very excited to roll these out and we know that they will appeal to everyone – young to old, local to international. Customers can book online and there will be tours available at 10am and 3pm every day of the week. We have some amazing guides on the team who can’t wait to get back to work as well. We are excited to show locals the hidden gems of Liverpool as well as show off the beauty of the city to our visitors.
What will be your greatest challenge going forward?
The challenge is now to get the message out to locals and encourage businesses and families to enjoy our tours as well the visitors in the city.
Obviously financially it’s very tough and the business is continuing to make losses every month. I’m very aware that there’s only a certain amount of time we that we will be able to survive for. Sometimes it feels like the business is just heading down the pan but we all have to consider that we may actually be doing the preparations for expanding our businesses in the future. If we can pivot our businesses now, then we may have extra services to offer post-covid that we hadn’t envisioned before (That’s actually the first time I’ve used the phrase post-covid…I need to start using that more.)
Have you considered partnering up with other businesses in the city?
Yes absolutely – we all need each other in these times, don’t we?
What we could do for you:
We can offer your customers a discount on our tours or arrange for private tours for your customer base or even your colleagues. We can also offer your discounts to our customers on the tours – so for cafes, restaurants, local attractions etc. This could be done via a flyer or simply recommending you as we go around the city and we can cross-promote each other that way.
We are also looking for some hot lunch spots and coffee stops where we can bring our customers mid tour or after the tours. Local venues like Museums, Theatres and quirky venues in the Baltic Triangle – we’d love to feature inside your venues as part of our tours to promote the city and local businesses so get in touch if you’d like to collaborate.
What you could do for us:
Book a tour for you, your family, your customer base or your colleagues! If you don’t have a Christmas Do organised – a walking tour could be a lot of fun! Followed by a mulled wine (outdoors and socially distanced after lockdown of course). We would also love to leave our flyers with local businesses like hotels, cafes, restaurants, shops, attractions, Airbnb properties and so on. If anyone doesn’t mind supporting us that way, that would be amazing.
If you’re on social media, please support us @wearedaytripper by following, commenting and sharing posts and we will return the local love in the same way for you.
If you’re interested in any of the above, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email or contact me on Instagram – I’d love to meet you. I’d be glad to chat and help you too if I can!
Do you have any useful advice for fellow tourism colleagues across the city region?
I’ll give it a go, but it’s advice for myself too! I’d say don’t put too much pressure on yourself at the moment and remember it’s ok to take this time for yourself and your loved ones. Read a book, watch a film in bed after breakfast and have a bath in the afternoon. We could all be rushed off our feet again before we know it and totally overwhelmed by the expediential work coming our way once things get moving again (and I’m sure they will). The little things that you can do are absolutely enough. In the words of Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget the perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in.
Liverpool is a tough but loving city and we can all get through it by helping each other, collaborating, showing support and being creative with our services. We are learning so much about business in this time without even realising it, and an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest J.
I’d like to send all my very best to everyone in the Tourism and Leisure Industry right now and I hope that in all the struggles we will all be able to see the beauty in the day to day and that everything happens for a reason and for a greater good.
Thank you also to James Wood and Visit Liverpool for supporting our new ventures at Daytripper, it’s very much appreciated.
I’m looking forward to opening a conversation with you all!