Standing the test of TIME

TIME Unlimited Tours – which stands for ‘To Integrate Māori Experiences’ – has recently celebrated 20 years in businesses.
Founders and directors Neill and Ceillhe Sperath started the family owned-and-operated business in 2005 and have been hosting small group and private tours ever since.
Known for their Auckland Māori cultural tours, TIME Unlimited Tours has branched out over the past two decades to include multi-day tours across Rotorua, Taupō, Wellington, the Coromandel, and more.
A lot has changed in tourism in the past 20 years, but the pair say the people, he tangata, are what really matters.
“We have noticed that like any industry it’s all about relationships, but the trends/cycles will still come and go and it’s about investing time and resource to be prepared for the upturns,” says Ceillhe.
“Although there are many new innovations, it still comes down to the good old values of people skills – over time if you are great at caring, communicating, collaborating, challenging the norm, and charismatic, then you can be an active player in this industry. “
There have been a few challenging times for the industry since 2005, including the 2008 recession and more recently a global pandemic, but the pair say their business has managed to weather the storms.
“During the 2008 recession we were still in our start up years, but COVID was the gamechanger and required all our experience and grit to manage and mitigate everything that moved!” says Neill.
“First, we quickly reviewed what was essential to our business survival; for instance getting rid of unnecessary costs, making sure we covered all outgoings we were obligated to pay, supporting our team and their whānau to do the same including just checking in to see they had kai and someone to talk to.
“We also used the time to stay updated on relevant changes and implementing best practice change with regards to risk, health and safety and business system review.
“The easiest things we did – which did not cost anything – was to reach out and check in on our industry partners and friends, our team and their respective whānau and communities in which we lived and engaged with for our business.”
Despite 20 years passing since the pair began their business, Ceillhe says in some ways, not much has changed at all.
“What has been a shame is that not a lot has changed and there have been times when we could have made some industry wide bold moves that would set up on the world stage and challenge other destinations on some issues, like sustainability/climate change, adopting our indigenous worldview, shaping the types of preferred markets/visitors where we could have been industry leaders.
“New Zealand has achieved so many firsts but we seem to shy away from making bold ‘first mover’ advantage gains on a number of fronts.
“We need to accept that we can do things differently to get better results that will mean more people will win out of this industry succeeding.”
With plenty of awards and accolades in their trophy case, TIME Unlimited Tours has done well to adapt, change and modify their tourism offering.
They’ve won four global tourism awards, including the National Geographic World Legacy Award, as well as many national awards.
They are also Qualmark Gold certified; acknowledging their excellence over many years in providing the highest standard in luxury touring in Auckland and throughout New Zealand.
Neill says technology has been a bit of a gamechanger for their businesses, and they’ve worked hard to keep up with developments and incorporate tech to better their business.
“We literally can say that our business is at our fingertips and allows us to be on the move.
“The ability to monitor ‘how we are doing’ in real time terms with platforms such as Xero, online bookings, banking, social media gives us the ability to actually have our business working while we sleep.
“In the international arena in which we play then it is a game changer.
“Simple tasks on how we can connect with manuhiri (visitors) before, during and after tours, how we have so many ways now to have a business hui it makes those of us who are time poor, more time efficient.
“Remote working has revolutionised our business readiness to innovate and improve, be more responsive to all our stakeholders and more accountable to ourselves above all. It also frees up the in-person time and quality of those engagements when we are hosting manuhiri.”
But when it comes down to it, TIME Unlimited Tours credits a portion of their business success to the people in the industry.
“Our business has survived because we have so many industry organisations and individuals who have been our support system and have been part of the journey too,” says Ceillhe.
“Special mention has to go the people who actually work to make our industry tick, the advocates, and the disrupters.
“One of those who require special mention is NZ Māori Tourism. We belong to many great industry memberships but despite the great emails and information, during the challenges over the years NZMT showed us values; they picked up the phone to ask us did we have food and toilet rolls and simply checked in to see if we were okay even when they knew the answer – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.”
Proud to be a Māori business showing Aotearoa’s culture to the world, Ceillhe says they have worked hard for everything they have.
“We have worked just as hard as anyone else who has been a founder, startup, SME, married to your business partner, and a family run business here in NZ.
“If only we had the Tiaki promise back 20 years ago, where it’s now okay to say ‘kia ora’ and use terms like Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga across the industry.
“Our wish is that people will try to pronounce Māori place names, take care with our beautiful environment and above all show care to each other like we do to our manuhiri.
“We are most certainly proud of our indigenous point of difference, but we want everyone to celebrate this too. Too often the cultural branding is used by us all but not everyone will acknowledge that it is the single most important brand New Zealand has – Kiwitanga is for us all.”
And while theirs is a story of resilience and growth, it’s also a bit of a love story, too.
“We can truly say this was a labour of love,” says Neill.
“Two months and 16 days after we met, we started our unique business TIME Unlimited Tours together.”
“Like most people, we wanted to combine our passion for things we do in life and make it something that you can earn a living from.
“It is true that to do what you love and be paid for it is very satisfying.
“We have achieved a lot together, learned more about each other’s areas of expertise, to trust our business decisions as we do in life together and at the end of the day put our whānau first so that the business is a means to our end.
“You still have to make more than you spend, but on a colour scale we started out green and in the red and, over the years depending on market changes, some business decisions we have been more in the black, but we’ve stayed married and are turning grey together.”
So, for TIME Unlimited Tours, while sometimes it’s about money, sometimes it’s about weathering the hard times, sometimes it’s about love, and sometimes it’s about making hard decisions, it’s always, always about he tangata.