The realities of being a small group tour operator right now

Stephen Liddell reflects on the challenges facing small businesses like his

Fleet Street St Pauls empty at 11am (Stephen Liddle)

When it comes to industries that have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, few have been worse hit than the travel industry.

As a small group tour operator, we would normally be running up to five or six tours a day; we haven’t had half that many tours in the last seven or eight months combined. To make things worse, several of our staff, myself included, are part of the ExcludedUK group, the three million people who are not eligible for any government support.

While large organisations have been able to successfully lobby for financial help, there is a world of difference between a famous airline or fast food chain and a small tours company. Like so many in the industry, we’ve effectively been left behind to either wait things out or close up shop.

Many consumers spent much of the spring and early summer wrangling to get their money back for cancelled holidays. As a small business run by real people, we took a human approach rather than a corporate one – we refunded every single booking within 24 hours, even though we had no obligation to under our terms and conditions.

But while we obligingly gave refunds, we were left seriously out of pocket by large, well-known attractions that seemingly had little concept of goodwill and refused to treat us as we had with our own customers.

We had hoped that the late summer easing of restrictions might be a help to us but not so. Most foreign travellers remain effectively banned and, perhaps understandably, British travellers wanted to crowd together on Cornish beaches or Lakeland fells rather than enjoy a totally empty London. And what few bookings we did receive were heavily impacted by some attractions being partly or entirely closed.

Just recently, a British couple who had booked a long weekend in London and two tours with us were forced to cancel the day before when they discovered their hotel hasn't reopened, and those that were open were charging heavily inflated rates.

We have seen first hand that being authorised by Visit England and Visit Scotland as "Good to go" isn't enough. And even though some areas of the hospitality trade have enjoyed hearty and even subsidised state support, it seems neither the government nor the Great British public gave much thought to inbound tourism firms or the multitude of small businesses that we in turn support in well-off-the-beaten-track places that coach companies or hoards of tourists would rarely see.  

Cautious or indeed sensible, travellers stopped arriving to our shores weeks before the lockdown arrived. Our bookings for the year are down 93 per cent; September was down 100 per cent, as were several other months of this year. While much of the rest of the country has since returned to work, there is no end in sight for us while those visiting from major nations such as the United States, France or indeed China still face quarantine.

Some of our younger guides have had to temporarily return to their home cities. Eight months without an income is far too great a period with mortgages, rents and bills to pay.

Many rival small to medium-sized tour companies have been forced to close. In contrast, we’re one of the more fortunate ones – we have no office to pay rent for or expensive vehicles to service. But we also don't have customers. And when the inbox pings, it's more likely to be an out-of-work guide than someone wanting to make a booking. These days, even half price tours have few if any takers.

What does the future hold? Hopefully when at last a vaccine arrives, we will be best placed to press home our strengths. As we specialise in private tours with individuals, couples and families, it seems likely such services will be in high demand as it’s hard to see packed out coaches trips and cruises being anyone's first choice for a holiday.

It is said that the best time to plan and invest is when everyone else is in retreat and we’ve spent the year planning for the future with new tours and experiences and also bringing video technology into the mix for tours and travel from the comfort of your home, wherever in the world that might be.

Meanwhile, I will try to make the most of a deserted London, walking down the middle of the Embankment, crossing "busy" Whitehall without fighting the crowds or dodging the traffic, and having off-peak tube carriages all to myself.

I will also have my first holiday season off in eight years. But if you’d like to tear up my plans, then you’d be very welcome and likely the only tourist in sight.

Stephen Liddell provides personal, private and bespoke tours through Ye Olde England Tours www.yeoldeenglandtours.co.uk