Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

Coronavirus is hitting the travel industry hard. On this episode we talk to tour industry veteran Peter Syme who shares actionable tips on what tour operators need to be doing in order to protect our tour businesses.

Sean Finelli walked away from a lucrative analyst job on Wall Street to move to Rome. He worked numerous bar and restaurant jobs to pay his way and then found himself selling tours on the streets of Rome. This is when his life changed. Sean worked his way up from selling tours for others outside the Colosseum to building his own successful tour business. Sean reveals he suffers from dyslexia but also shares how he has turned it into an advantage.

How travelers experience a tour, an attraction or activity and the ways in which operators can deliver those experiences are changing rapidly. In this first-time session at Arival, we feature new innovations that could change the way you do business. Then, the Arival Observation Deck, comprised of four veteran operators and investors, evaluate each presentation live on stage and ask key questions to help determine if these tools could be a part of your tomorrow. The Tools & Innovators: Alex Govoreanu, Questo - the game is the tour Christian Watts, Magpie - all of your content, everywhere Michael Weiss, Bitemojo - food tours by smartphone

How do you begin to design a major new attraction in a destination that already has it all? In this talk, attractions industry veteran Jason Horkin walks us through the design-led approach they took to develop the Vessel and the Edge, and how New York City’s Hudson Yards tackled design and development challenges in the very busy Big Apple. Speaker: Jason Horkin, Executive Director at Related/Hudson Yards

Growth in most companies is hardly a straight line up, but more like an adventure course with plenty of downs as well as ups. In this operator story, James Blick shares the lessons learned from Devour’s tours and detours since its founding in 2012 to its expansion to seven cities across Europe. Speaker: James Blick, Co-Founder & COO at Devour Tours

The rapid growth and adoption of reservation systems have made mission-critical tech accessible to even the smallest operators and brought much of our industry online. But just how different are all of these systems (Arival has identified more than 100), how do operators begin to choose, and what does it mean now that alignments are emerging between some tech systems and major online travel agencies? We’ll dive in and pull no punches as we talk tech and what it means to you with the CEOs of four reservation system companies. Res Tech Panelists: Chris Atkin, CEO of Rezdy Ruzwana Bashir, Co-Founder & CEO of Peek Jason Morehouse, Co-founder & CEO of Checkfront Max Valverde, CEO of FareHarbor

This operator roundtable delves into challenges and best practices around working with OTAs, managing distribution channels and building a direct and diversified sales strategy.

Chris was a prominent administrator at UEFA, the football authority in Europe, and unfortunately was laid off in his mid-forties. When looking for another career job, Chris realized he had a passion and knowledge of the Swiss Countryside, decided to buy himself a van, and start his own business as a tour operator.This is the story behind Typically Swiss Tours.

Travelers may stay in rooms, but they seek experiences, and lodging providers can be a key point of sale for operators. In this talk, we’ll hear how the world’s biggest hotel chain is approaching the Best Part of Travel, and how you can grow your sales through hotel and accommodation partners. Speaker: Susan DeBottis, VP, Tours & Activities at Marriott International

No matter how large or how small, no company is immune to the disruption that technology innovation and changing traveler demands can bring. In this session, you’ll learn how Universal, one of the leading global theme park brands, approaches some of the most disruptive forces in our industry. Plus, you’ll get their take on key trends in tech, distribution and what’s next for the guest experience. Speakers: Frank Belzer, Senior Vice President - Portfolio Sales at Universal Parks and Resorts Jenna Blumenfeld, Managing Editor at Arival

In this candid and in-depth episode of Tourpreneur, I chat with Steve Chapman of Salida Walking Tours. who walks through starting a walking tour business from scratch. Steve Chapman was a founder of his own strategic marketing consulting company and decided to sell his business in 2018. He needed a new career and turned to his hometown of Salida, which is Colorado's largest national historic district, to start a walking tour business.

Experiences, the once-fledgling tours and activities initiative of the online accommodation giant, is growing up fast. Airbnb now boasts more than 30,000 experiences around the world, a new multi-day tour division and more. This candid interview will delve into how Airbnb is working operators, and we’ll ask their head North America the questions you need answered to see if you should be working with them.

At Arival Orlando 2019, Invisible Cities’ founder shares her vision for making the invisible visible, and how tour and activity operators can have a social and local impact. Every tour operator wants their tours and experiences to have an impact. But Invisible Cities in the UK, Scotland, seeks to be transformational for its guides as well as its guests. Founded in 2016, this company trains individuals affected by homelessness to become guides and lead alternative tours – now across four cities. Invisible Cities’ founder shares her vision for making the invisible visible, and how tour and activity operators can have a social and local impact.

Stephen Oddo, CEO and Co-Founder of Walks reveals why he built he started the walking tour company and shares lessons he has learned along the way.

Four years ago, Zakia Moulaoui founded a tour operator business with a difference. Her tour company Invisible Cities recruits, trains and hire tour guides who have been affected by homelessness, addiction, and other tough life circumstances. In this candid and in-depth episode of Tourpreneur, the podcast for tour operators, we learn how to build a social enterprise in the tours and activities sector. This is not an interview with an academic or lecturer. In today's episode, you will hear from an inspirational tour operator who started her own social enterprise with no cash nor any previous business experience. Since she started in Edinburgh, Zakia has now expanded into 5 British cities. Zakia Moulaoui talks us through the highs and lows of starting, running and growing a social enterprise in the tour sector.

Building a profitable food tour business is tough. Building a food tour business in a 'secondary' destination with the foodie heaven of San Francisco right on your doorstep? Even tougher! On today's Tourpreneur, the podcast for tour operators, you will hear the story of Lauren McCabe Herpich, the tourpreneur behind Local Food Adventures in Oakland, California. In this candid conversation with Tourpreneur host Shane Whaley, Lauren McCabe Herpich shares with us the highs and lows about starting her own food tour business from scratch.

Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley and Digital Travel Show Host Chris Torress discuss the major events of 2019 for the Tours and Activities Industry. includes: OTAs for tour operators. Good or a bad thing or both?The changing face of the tours and activities OTA landscape.Booking.com pulling out of the Experiences sector (for now.)Massive changes at Expedia.What exactly is Groupon doing in the tours and activities space?How was Arival 2019 in Orlando for Shane and Chris? What did we learn? What did we enjoy?We give you our opinions on that res tech debate between Peek, FareHarbor, Checkfront, and Rezdy.Who is our Tour Operator/Tourpreneur of the Year?And Much More...

Its the final episode of the Espresso Interviews from Arival. Nick Wilson shares with us how he leveraged his experience working at a luxury hotel to create Wicked Wine Tours and more recently the Wicked Weed Tour. Nick loves wine and always wanted to build how own business, in this espresso episode of the Tourpreneur Podcast with Shane Whaley, Nick reveals how five years ago, he started Wicked Wine tours in British Columbia and recently a Kelowna Weed Tour! How To Start a Weed Tour Business.Nick tells us that weed tours are similar to wine tours, there's no consumption in the vehicles. They take their guests to either a grow operation or an extraction facility, "A lot of people, maybe, have had experience with cannabis but they really don't know a heck of a lot about it. Very similar to our wine guests. "I like to drink wine but I don't know a lot about it." says Nick. He continued: "We educate them on the plant, male, females, indica, sativa, CBD, THC, all that kind of stuff. Now they're armed with a little bit of knowledge. Off we go to the dispensaries. They have private appointments with the budtenders. They can purchase their product, and many of our guests are from out of town so they don't want to fly with their cannabis which is legal in Canada, but if you're an international guest, obviously it isn't. They get to do a little shopping for their product while they're in town for a few days, and the feedback's been amazing."

Tom Kratsch of the digital marketing agency, Activities and Tours Marketing by TRK Creative Group sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares some tips from his 25 years in digital tourism marketing and highlights the importance of measuring marketing performance in your tour operator business. Tom Kratsch's digital marketing agency Activities and Tours Marketing by TRK Creative Group focuses on the tours and activity industry.

Alice and Torin (The Flying Bike Guided Bike Tours, Asheville) who appeared on Episode 1 of the Tourpreneur Podcast sat down with Shane at Arival Orlando to give us an Arival Review. Alice and Torin, are second-time attendees, they share what their favorite Arival sessions were, who inspired them, what they are going to do differently as a result of attending Arival and where Arival can improve for future events.

There are a lot of inspiration and tips for tour operators in this one. Todd Kersey started his tour business, 22 years ago and now manages tours in 5 states and in 240 locations. Todd employees 280 people and he shares with us his tips for managing tour operator staff.Talking of Success Strategies for Tour Operators, Todd reveals that 74% of all his business comes via Search Engine Optimization and less than 2% of his tours are booked via OTAs!

Sweet John Muehlbauer sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares more with us about how YourBikerGang strives to help guests 'unleash their bad side.'Sweet John walks us through YourBikerGang's pricing strategy and shares with us how they market and price a tour that, is so unique, nobody is searching for it.

Robert sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares more with us about how Bindlestiff Tours create truly immersive experiences on their multi-day tours. We also talk about the major differences selling multi-day tours online, how the booking window is different and the challenge of selling multi-day tours online because of the higher price point. I also ask Robert how he reckons the tours, activities and experiences industry has changed over the years. Robert Graff speaks at many trade conferences and events, I have been lucky to see him on stage several times. He is an industry professional, a travel industry veteran that I have admired from afar, so I was delighted to spend some time with Robert, though ten minutes did not do us justice. I hope he is open to coming back on the show, maybe on one of our future round tables to discuss the state of the tours and activities industry because he has so much experience and knowledge to share with us.

TourismTiger's Matt Newton is one of the most experienced and knowledgable people I know when it comes to marketing tours and in today's episode, he shares some top website tips for tour operators. His book Sell More Tours (2015) is crammed with online marketing and web site tips for Tour Operators, it was one of the first books I read when I made the transition from hotels to the tour industry. I was delighted to finally meet Matt at Arival in Orlando and honored that he agreed to sit down for a quick chat to share his knowledge and marketing tips for tour operators.

Georgette Blau is the founder of On Location Tours offering TV and Movie Tours in NYC. From Sex in the City tours to The Sopranos Tours and now even Superhero tours. Georgette sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares with us how she got started offering TV and movie tours in NYC. Georgette's story is inspirational.

In this candid interview, Ellen of Breakers Boat Trips Punta Cana shares their lessons on not just setting up a tour business, but being a tour operator in a foreign country.We also talk about boat trips marketing, how Ellen sells tours through hotels and how most of her OTA bookings for her tours are coming via Bookit. 

Annalise Smith is the founder of Key West Food Tours, rated #1 for food tours in Key West on Tripadvisor. Annalise sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shared the origin story and mission of Key West Food Tours with us. Key West Food Tours was founded in 2014 to offer visitors of Key West a taste of authentic local culinary experiences while providing historical anecdotes Initially, Annalise wanted to invite people to her Cuban grandmother's home to enjoy an authentic Cuban family dining experience. The City said no to Annalise's tour business idea because of health codes. That lead Annalise to explore the world of food tours. That was the catalyst behind Key West Food Tours. In this conversation, Annalise shares her marketing strategies with us for her food tours and she reveals how she overcame resistance from restaurants who did not see the benefit of being a part of a food tour.

What exactly is the 'B side' of tours? Pedro DeMarche, of Spanish tour operator, Sixthrills sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shared more about the mission of their company.

In this inspirational episode, Paul Melhus, the founder of Toursbylocals sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shared more about the mission of Toursbylocals. Paul tells us how he was inspired to start Toursbylocals following a visit to the Great Wall of China where he enjoyed a tour by locals (who then tried selling them keepsakes in exchange.)Paul Melhus takes us on a journey from that flight home to growing a network of just over 4,000 tour guides in 923 locations in 160 countries around the world.We also learn how Toursbylocals vet all their tour guides, how they market their tours and why they won't take on new tour guides unless they feel confident they can deliver bookings.

In this episode, we talk all about digital marketing tips for tour operators. At Arival Orlando. Digital Marketing expert Jaden Cymaluk of IWerx Connect sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley. Jaden generously shares digital marketing tips for tour operators including how tourpreneurs should vet a digital marketing agency, why it is always important to work with a marketing company that understands the tour industry and why a one-off Facebook post is not going to be effective. And Much More!

Carrie Burns is a movie buff who built a tour operator business around films. She sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley and explained how Atlanta Movie Tours started, how they market their movie tours, some of the challenges they face and much more. Carries generously shares advice on how to get started creating your own movie tours in your city.

Mina Okpi is a tour operator on a mission. She sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley and explained why she feels the outdoors industry is not marketing to people of color and what her tour business is doing about it. 'I noticed that a lot of people of color and black people weren't outdoors and taking advantage of the healing that I thought nature was able to bring to people. And that really made me sad in a way. And so I wanted to change that and I wanted to bring that outdoors and the healing and that feeling and community to communities of color.'

Shawn Teasley sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and shared three social media tips for tour operators.I was excited to chat with Shawn, as she is a social media expert with vast experience of working within the tours and hospitality industry. She is also very generous with her time and knowledge because she is passionate about social media and tours. In this quick chat, I asked Shawn to share with us her top three social media tips for tour operators. Shawn has kindly agreed to come back on the Tourpreneur Podcast on a future episode to answer more of your social media questions and to give us more social media tips for tour operators because 10 minutes is not enough time to learn from such an experienced social media strategist.

Nicole Will sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and shared why she decided to start her own tour business having worked as a tour guide for many years. We also discuss some of the challenges she has faced since launching her Asheville Wellness tours business which includes working with 50+ partners. Nicole also reveals why she picked Xola as her booking software partner and we learn more about her marketing and OTA strategy.

Miranda Peterson sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and told us how she gave up her corporate job, went on sabbatical around the world and came home to build a yoga tours business in Asheville.Miranda walks us through how she tested her idea to see if there was a demand for yoga tours in Asheville. We also discuss some of the challenges she has faced since launching her yoga tours business including why she moved from FareHarbor to Peek and we learn more about her marketing and OTA strategy.

10 minutes with Linda Denbrock of Secret Food Tours. Secret Food Tours offers delicious food tours in over 55 cities in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Linda sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and revealed the mission of Secret Food Tours including how they strive to deliver an authentic, immersive experience for their food tour guests plus how they market their tours to travelers.

David Naczycz of NYC Urban Adventures sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and revealed how built his tour company and why he decided to work with Urban Adventures.

10 mins with Arnaud Azoulay of Babylon Tours. Arnaud sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and revealed how built his tour company, Babylon Tours. He also shares with us insights and tips for other tour operators including which booking platform they work with and how they work remotely and how they hire tour guides

10 mins with Bryan Bou of Spotin Tours. He shares with us how they moved from being an app to a tour operator. He shares with us their success strategies, insights, and tips for other tour operators including which booking platform they work with.

Shane announces a new format and series of episodes for the next month on Tourpreneur. For the next four weeks, Tourpreneur will deliver you a daily dose of inspiration as we distill tips and strategies of fellow tourpreneurs in 10 min episodes.

Let’s face it: The In-destination industry has been the hottest sector of travel over the past few years. Venture capital keeps pouring in, M&A is accelerating, technology is (finally) taking hold and operators across the region and around the world are investing in tech. Where does this all lead? Will OTAs own the day? Do operators have a voice? What will these changes mean to creators and sellers across the region? A leading venture investor, a corporate strategist and a startup CEO who’s seen it all explain the present and chart the future for The Best Part of Travel.

On Episode 34 of Tourpreneur, the podcast for tour operators, we sat down with Checkfront who provide reservation software for tour operators, to find out more about the company and specifically how they can help tour businesses. An important element of selecting a booking platform for your tour business is getting a feel for the company, its mission and of course its employees. We can all take an online demo, read the publicity and the 'About' pages but will their values really align with yours? One of the main reasons we recommend Tourpreneur listeners attend events such as Arival is to meet the booking platform partners in person so you can assess if they are the right fit for your tour business We know that it is not always possible to attend events so as part of the Tourpreneur mission to flatten the learning curve for tour operators, we will bring you interviews with the main players in the booking software for tour and activity operators.First up, at ARIVAL Orlando, we spoke with Checkfront CEO Jason Morehouse, VP of Product Stephanie Brachat. We also invited Alan Rust of America Tour Company (here is story on Episode 8) for the tour operator perspective. Tourpreneur host Shane Whaley was armed with questions sent in by tour operators who wanted to know more about Checkfront. So sit back and hear more about them and how they feel they can help your business.

Raj Gyawali, Founding Director of the leading Nepal tour operator socialtours (and Asia’s first Travelife-certified brand), speaks to building a company culture with responsible practices baked into day-to-day operations. He shares how every tour and attraction operator can embed sustainable habits into the daily routine of its staff, tours and the experience of their customers.

Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) play a pivotal role in driving tourism and advancing the interests of local tours, activities and attractions. This session assembles leaders from some of Asia’s most important tourism bodies to discuss key trends in travel across Asia, the role of DMOs.

As Arival Orlando drew to a close, Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley hit the network lounge and lobbies to ask Arival attendees what they thought of Arival Orlando and what were some of their major take aways.

From full-time student and part-time tour guide to full-time-plus as entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of I Love Asia Tour Lien Nguyen is on a mission to empower women across Vietnam and beyond to step up, and out, as tour guides and independent entrepreneurs in their own right.

Most tour and activity operators start their business with a passion. But once that passion turns into profit, every entrepreneur faces the same questions: What’s next? How do we grow? More tours? New destinations? And how do create processes and build the right team to make it all happen? In this talk, Hello! Tours founder Laura Blackhall shares her journey to answer these tough questions and build her company into a multi-destination operation.

YouTube for Tour Operators. We show you how Rob at TripHacks DC built a youtube channel that delivers 90% of his tour bookings. We also talk about how he got started, and how he competes in the highly competitive area of Washington DC. His tour ranks #9 out of 209 on Tripadvisor. This episode is action packed with ideas for all tour operators.

How in the world does an Israeli journalist arrive in Singapore and within a few short years develop one of the most talked-about food tours that’s featured by the Singapore Tourism Board? In this talk, Karni Tomer shares her passion, purpose and hunger for the street food of her adopted country and how it propelled her business forward.

The flexible, use-as-you-go multi-attraction pass has been on the rise around the world. But is this pass optimized for operators in the Asia Pacific region? This presentation walks through the basics of the multi-attraction pass, and explores whether it is the right choice for your business.