Whilst our plans for 2024 are going very well indeed and we are quite excited about the variety and quality of departures we have had to look at a slight change of direction in regard to just how the business can continue to grow.
Our 1st Newsletter will be posted out to our full database shortly and will then be made available on here a few days later - and this will detail not only the remainder of 2023, but our Holiday Programme through until the end of May 2024. There are also special features on summer departures to The Outer Hebrides, Sidmouth Folk Festival, Jersey by Air & our flagship tour to the Alpine Valleys of Austria, Germany, Switzerland & Liechtenstein too!
We decided earlier this year that we would unfortunately, look to release the Travel & Coffee Shop that we have in Long Eaton, but that decision has now come about a month sooner than planned. Our landlord has a new tenant lined up from 1st August 2023 and doesn't want to lose them after the shop was vacant for over 4 years before we arrived.
Therefore, we opened the doors on the shop for the final time, last Friday.
The Reasoning?
The main factors are the practicality of manning the shop itself, the rising costs of doing so & the under-use of the shop itself from a retail perspective.
With Aidan and I not living near to the shop, travel becomes an issue and when Aidan is away on tour, the difficulty level in keeping the shop open increases.
The rising energy costs over the past 18 months have made the shop by far the most expensive outgoing we have as a business, and these will most likely only raise further.
This brings us to the last reason. Earlier this year we calculated that only 18% of our Travel customers visited the shop for bookings or payments etc. This means that over 80% of our loyal customers do not come to us in Long Eaton.
To let go of the financial and physical restraints at this stage will enable us to take the business back to what made it successful in the beginning - taking it to the people, to the communities. Keep an eye out for regular updates on this website on our new EVENTS page - a facility, along with emails that will be updated and used far more regularly from August onwards.
We will have a set up on Long Eaton market twice a month, along with Loughborough's Thursday market twice monthly too. Visits are planned to Ruddington & Beeston markets amongst many others. We will also be doing targeted marketing around many of the smaller villages and will be looking to become involved in many garden fetes, festivals and similar events in towns & villages near you.
The 'Events' list will be continually updated on this website from mid-August. If you know of any such events near to you, or are part of a club, organisation or complex that would benefit from a FREE presentation - please do get in touch.
Our telephone line will continue to operate Monday-Wednesday 9am-2pm and all calls outside of these hours will be returned the same working day. Our email address also remains the same and for the coming months any mail received will be forwarded to us whilst our new address is set-up.
2024 looks very exciting for ALL ABOUT TOURS and now with what (over the past 3 years) has felt like the handcuffs off, we are free to expand our business and most importantly, the awareness of it to the wider community. As we increase the awareness, we increase the number of passengers on tours AND the number of tours offered (& operated).
We thank wholeheartedly the community of Long Eaton and surrounding area for welcoming us and standing by us. You will not be forgotten, and we will be on the market twice a month to visit - as well as other events in the area. We thank everyone one of our customers who have helped our small family business grow in the 6 years we have been going - half of which has been lost to Covid, but we can fully reassure you, this decision has been made to help the company continue to grow - by reaching out to the many other towns & villages in the East Midlands that are not so aware of what we have to offer.
Thank you to all and hopefully we may see you on a holiday with all about TOURS soon.
Martin, Aidan, Penny, Tony, Jean, Jason & all AAT