Tour guide operator puts itself on the virtual map 

About the business

Based in Aberdeenshire, Grampian Escapes and Tours offers single day food tours in the city of Aberdeen and other tours around the North East of Scotland, combining popular attractions and impressive sights along with off the beaten track experiences.

How Business Gateway has helped

As the pandemic put all tourist activities on hold during 2020, founder Jacqueline van den Akker approached Business Gateway for help to strengthen her existing skillset and ensure the survival of her business by providing audio tours as a new way to reach customers. 

While working with Business Gateway’s specialist team, Jacqueline developed and launched an app for her business to guide explorers through a series of curated walking and driving tours. The app features untold stories to enhance the user’s experience and appreciation for the areas being explored through the tours.    

Through DigitalBoost, Jacqueline was able to access a grant which funded 75% of the costs for developing and configuring a high-quality white label app and to get it up and running.     

Jacqueline van den Akker, founder, Grampian Escapes and Tours said: “Through working with the Business Gateway team, I found the inspiration and confidence to launch my first app.

“Thanks to the clear advice and direction given by the DigitalBoost team, I was able to develop a new offering for my customers, and my goal is to expand this further by adding further tours and translating them into different languages.”