Guides to continue live streamed travel tours after Heygo collapse

By paulcolewriter2 months ago ( 7 )

EXPERT local guides have formed an online collective to look into the continuation of live streamed interactive travel after the imminent closure of market leader Heygo.

York tour guide John Wright heads up All Points North, which has attracted the support of many of the Heygo platform’s most popular personalities from around the world.

They include Lesley Hammam, Patrick Twomey, Stephan van der Meer, Ian Braisby, Eriko Shiratori, Paul Stewart, Nathalie Kerrio, Anna Levina, Patrick Wetzel and Aaron Kaburick, and many more.

Heygo, set up during pandemic lockdown in 2020, has announced that it will cease operations on April 11 after struggling financially, severing a lifeline to many armchair travellers.

Initially, All Points North is serving as a forum, sharing information about tours being offered by guides for a small fee on their own YouTube channels, and keeping virtual travellers up to date.

“We want to send you a weekly e-mail with a calendar setting out all the tours we are doing each week,” says John, who has led countless trips to England’s North Country on Heygo.

The All Points North group is on Facebook here.

“The idea is that you will have all the information you need in the same place and know where to find us,” he explains.

Meanwhile, a new Facebook community group, under the banner Live Virtually – See The World, has attracted 3,000 members in just a few days and is growing rapidly.

Most are migrating from the Heygo Voyagers group, which has a membership of more than 11,000, built up over three years, but which will be archived as a ‘read-only’ group from April 11.

The new group will help maintain friendships established during the Heygo years, and continue to allow the sharing of photos shot on tours and memories made by virtual travellers.