Legends of the business of pub walking tours have joined forces to expand the concept beyond Sydney and even pubs, with the evolved business of Dave’s Pub Tours.
In 2010 Gregg Peek began Peek Tours, and gaining momentum, in 2015 the business combined with Dave Phillips’ success with Dave’s Brewery Tours, to form Dave’s Pub Walks.
In 2012 Gary West launched Sydney Pub Tours, setting the standard for pub walking tours of The Rocks.
With over 10,000 tour guests between them, the two entities have now combined for the succession of Dave’s Pub Tours.
“A big part of what we do at Dave’s is about growing small businesses and enabling individual business owners through group effort, so I am pretty stoked to have Gary on board,” says Phillips. “Our objective is purely about strengthening tourism businesses through professional management, so our job now is providing Gary and Gregg the support they need and getting out of their way.”
The combined brains trust has its eye on more and expanded pub tours, and in time perhaps walking tours exploring history in an area beyond the pubs.
This is a ramped-up extension of previous initiatives, such as Dave’s Balmain Walking Tour, launched in late 2015.
“Gregg spent three months researching the local area history and developed a walking tour route that not only focused on the pubs, but on the historical and cultural stories, myths and legends that made Balmain what it is today.”
Phillips told PubTIC the guys are looking at areas to develop tours – both city and regional, in NSW, Victoria and Queensland – and says the group benefits from its growing reputation for both bringing patrons and championing the legends of their tour stops.
“We work closely with the venues and local councils to develop and promote our tours, and we look for local tour operators/guides who we can coach and develop.
“Our aim is to make more people fans of our local pub scene and understand the history and culture there.
“If there is a group of pubs out there who are keen to discuss how we can help them bring more to their region through tourism, we would love to hear from them.”
The team at Dave’s Travel & Events Group won Gold at the 2017 NSW Tourism Awards for Best Tour Operator.
Tours already operate around Sydney, the Central Coast, Southern Highlands, Newcastle, Hunter Valley, Canberra, Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
