Our Local Tour: Tailor Made Local Travel

17/10/2024 

Everybody could use a holiday every now and then, and though there are dozens of services that can get you abroad there is only one in Ashington that can deliver you a personalised and authentic travel experience.  

Our Local Tour has been trading since 2023, operated by Aled Evans, a veteran of the travel industry with over 25 years of experience. His goal was to deliver travel experiences that are unique and offer more than the standard trip abroad.  

Aled tells us, “We offer bespoke holidays and tours all around the world. Local teams based in the country that the client is visiting design and run the holidays and tours. This creates a win-win situation, with local people getting employment and extra business while the client gets a more in-depth experience and the local knowledge of the people in the country.”  

With an offer like these personalised adventures built on authenticity and local expertise, it can be hard to believe that Our Local Tour wasn’t more popular. Aled said: “Our main issue has been brand awareness. As a new business and funded by the founder, there has not been a large marketing budget.”  

This is where Accelerate Ashington was able to provide their support. The programme offers digital marketing support for businesses in the Ashington area, and this offer comes with a £750 marketing budget. All funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.  

Aled met with Andrew Plant, Programme Manager of Accelerate Ashington, at an Advance Northumberland networking event. They discussed the needs of Our Local Tour and what the support could do for them.  

When asked about Our Local Tour, Andrew said: “We were eager to work with such a unique business. It’s one that can benefit members of the local community who are looking to experience a different type of holiday package away from mainstream providers. It’s important to us that businesses like these get all the support they need.”  

When discussing his previous experience, Aled told us: “I had some social media and digital experience, but it was insufficient for me to use it confidently for the business.” We put Aled in touch with our marketing experts to generate a marketing campaign that would raise brand awareness and bring in new clients. He later told us: “It was a great help. We were able to identify specific market sectors to target and built a campaign around reaching that target market.”  

After finalising the details of the marketing campaign, it ran for several weeks on Our Local Tour’s social media pages. Upon reviewing the results, they informed us: “A huge amount of people saw our adverts online.”” With a reach of over 138,640 and 5608 link clicks during the lifetime of the campaign it exceed expectations.  

Reflecting upon the support received a few weeks following the campaign end, Aled let us know “We learnt a lot from the experience and have used this to focus further online campaigns.” And when asked if he would recommend the programme to others he said, “Go for it! You have nothing to lose. Even the application process is quick and easy.”  

If you are looking for a destination holiday but want to try something new and authentic, consider going local.