Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast (Tourpreneur)

Today we discuss travel trade representation with Mark Wright of The Adventure Connection.

Mark is a 30 year plus veteran of the travel industry who now represents tour operators and destination management companies around the World.

Representation is a little understand method in our community and it deserves more attention as a way to grow your tour operation.

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The Adventure Connection

00:00 Best time for operators to make connections.

05:40 Representation company acts as middleman, connecting operators.

09:44 Investment in shows can be costly for operators, particularly small ones, in terms of both time and money. Representation offers a range of services to help, beyond just attending trade shows.

13:28 Busy pre-event period: clients, meetings, presentations.

14:39 Monitoring meetings, efficient follow-up vital, tailored templates.

17:53 Supply chain and tour operators are affected. Marketing representation helps build relationships and increase business. Fan trips foster product experience and relationships.

21:15 Increased travel to Europe as restrictions ease.

24:49 Tour operators prioritize sustainability in DMC selection.

30:56 Niche identification and ready-made products for operators.

32:06 DMC developed toolkit to improve services.

35:27 Product manager must understand industry, work in product development. Challenging for DMCs to approach them.

40:26 We attend about 6-10 shows per year, including big ones like WCM and ITB, as well as smaller specialist shows. The rise of smaller shows is positive.

42:48 Traditional industry cycle guides timing of activities.

45:07 Need more staff to revive travel industry.

Many of you have written in asking me why I no longer produce a What I Learned This Week episode on Tourpreneur. In this short episode, I reveal what I learned in 2020 and how I am trying to be laser-focused in 2021 so I can deliver you even better content. Shane is not the only one trying to be more focused, he is in good company with Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky calling 2021 a year of focus. Also in this audio journal, I share more about how I organize my working week as a content creator and how I stay productive despite all the distractions. A big shout out to Cal Newport's book 'Deep Work.' I also share why I turned down invites to Clubhouse and my response to those who ask me what I think about the new Arival Insider Pro subscription plan. I also give you a sneak preview of a new feature on Tourpreneur that we will be piloting shortly. Bridgerton anyone?

Chris Torres kicks things off by discussing the three paths for business owners: low road (staying small), middle road (scaling up to a moderate size), and high road (scaling up to a big company), emphasizing the importance of aligning these choices with personal and business goals. Mitch Bach joins in to emphasize the significance of personal fulfillment and passion in business, while Peter Syme shares valuable insights and advice on navigating potential industry disruptions in 2024.

Throughout the episode, our hosts tackle questions from the community and provide expert advice on reaching customers, marketing strategies, scenario planning, and the debate around scaling up businesses. With a mix of humor, candid insights, and actionable tips, this episode will equip you with the knowledge and inspiration to take your tour business to the next level.

So, grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's dive into the latest in the world of travel entrepreneurship.

Overview

00:00 Marketing coaching call discusses 2024 trends and success.

06:43 Global unrest could disrupt travel in 2024.

09:53 Product experimentation is crucial for success.

11:23 Virtual travel trend set to grow further.

16:03 Testing tour logistics with friends and family.

20:04 Target female solo travelers, analyze audience data.

21:39 New operators often neglect marketing, leading to slow growth.

25:26 Build personal brand, market unique experiences effectively.

27:17 Linda seeks collaboration with international travel agents.

33:14 Building agent relationships through valuable information exchange.

34:42 Misunderstandings about agency's travel services, communication hurdles.

38:02 Create batch of content and publish strategically.

42:58 Transformational travel offers emotional fulfillment and change.

44:38 Appealing to slow travelers through storytelling and photos.

50:01 Small companies can lead to success and happiness.

51:39 Prefers small business for work-life balance.

54:51 As a business owner, learn to say no.

58:43 Tourpreneur.com offers business coaching and resources.

Talking to tour operator John O'Sullivan is always a breath of fresh air; he likes to think deeply about the tour industry, and experiment with new ideas that often challenge the tour operator orthodoxy.   John runs Depot Adventures in Melbourne, Australia and Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as a new TikTok-based venture, One Minute Tours.   John's first Tourpreneur podcast was recorded with Shane back in 2019, where he shared his thoughts about the economics of the "free tour" model. It's still a worthy listen. Now he's back with a new venture, new locations for his old company. We cover a wide variety of topics:

• how to structure and develop a tour in a new destination
• thinking about tour content in the age of Wikipedia
• developing a business across two extremely different locations
• does developing a global brand bring benefits?
• entering a midmarket destination: how to sell? how to price?
• hiring and retaining guides as employees
• John's experiment with tip pooling, and being transparent about his experiment with his guide community
• his accidental virality on TikTok, and how it's changing the direction of his business

As always, bonus material and more can be found on Tourpreneur.com/plus

In this episode of the Tourpreneur Podcast, we bring you the full audio of the Arival Online Session The Future of International Travel with Brand USA's Carroll Rheem.

In this in-depth discussion we’ll delve into how travelers around the world are thinking about travel, how they are planning trips and what they are looking for. We’ll discuss what operators of tours, activities, attractions and experiences should do to reach those travelers, what travel marketing will look like in the future, and what adjustments operators should make to their products.

In this episode, we throw the spotlight on TourOpp in a brand new series where we learn more about tech, tools and apps for tour operators.

Tourpreneur is a no sales pitch podcast so we invited a customer of TourOpp to join us and share why they chose TourOpp and how it is increasing their cross-selling, upselling, number of reviews and saving customer service hours.

We are joined by TourOpp founder, Daniel Pino and Gray Line San Francisco's Xavier Valls Pinilla.

Check out the TourOpp features to see if they are a tour operator tool that can help your tour business.

The rapid growth and adoption of reservation systems have made tech accessible to even the smallest operators and brought much of our industry online. Indeed, res tech has been an essential service, a utility, for our industry. What role can they play during this crisis? How can they help operators in the recovery? And how will the challenges of 2020 change the technology landscape for our industry? We’ll dive in and pull no punches as we talk tech and what it means for your business with leadership from four reservation systems. Presenters: Maria Aivalioti, COO, Travelotopos Hjalti Baldursson, CEO, Bokun Scott Zimmerman, CEO, Xola Kory Fawcett, CEO, Zaui Software Moderator: Douglas Quinby, CEO, Arival

Mitch Bach talks with Corey William Schneider, founder of the New York Adventure Club, about his unique approach to building a tour business focused on delivering unique, special-access experiences to primarily a crowd of locals.

From those experiences, which grew out of his personal desire to explore more of his home of New York City with other likeminded friends, he pivoted during Covid towards a wide variety of virtual tours.

Today the Adventure Club still does both. Corey's story can help operators everywhere understand how to develop product lines aimed at locals, and ancillary high-profit revenues through virtual tours at scale.

What's it really like to work with GetYourGuide for tour operators? Carlee and Marc join me today to discuss the relationship between OTA GetYourGuide and tour operators. Marc shares how GetYourGuide extended the reach of his tour business, giving him access to new international customers, and discusses how cooperation with GetYourGuide has improved his business growth.

In this quick episode, Tourpreneur partners Peter Syme and Chris Torres dive into the latest buzz around Airbnb's third attempt to amplify their experiences offering.

Despite previous failures, Airbnb is pushing hard again, proclaiming that experiences represent a massive market opportunity. But can they succeed this time? Peter and Chris weigh in on the challenges Airbnb faces, from curating high-quality experiences to ensuring sustainable pricing for operators.

They discuss the potential pitfalls of relying on non-professional hosts and the importance of integrating API connectivity for seamless bookings. Will Airbnb's powerful brand and vast resources finally turn the tide? Tune in as our hosts dissect the prospects of Airbnb becoming a major player in the experiences sector and share insights on what needs to change for this ambitious venture to thrive.

For more, visit tourpreneur.com

Dorene Wharton joins us today to share copywriting tips for tour operators. She shares how writing copy is an art and science that tour operators can learn to produce powerfully engaging copy. We discuss what has changed since Covid-19, how to establish trust, and what hasn’t changed in terms of effective copy. Dorene's copywriting tips for tour operators highlight the must-haves for your content and stresses the importance of authenticity. She also discusses why good copywriting starts with your purpose and reveals how you can find the right balance between SEO keywords and your brand’s voice.

This week on Tourpreneur - copywriting tips for tour operators:

• The pre-COVID authentic, conscious consumer buying trends that are becoming more pronounced
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• Why consumers are becoming more skeptical with brands and their motives
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• How to reassure people in your copy that you have taken the necessary steps to ensure visitor and employee safety
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• How to conduct a deep dive into your customer's persona and uncover what they are asking for
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• Why your About Us page is essential and should be one of your top three visited pages
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• How to write your About Us page and convey your personal story
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• How to use descriptive words and verbs and why you should avoid adjectives
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• How to make your copy easier to digest through sectioning and titling
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• Why you should conduct keyword research before you write
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• Why your blog titles need to be consistent with your content
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• How to improve your copywriting by using authenticity, emotion, and personality
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• Interview questions and how to find a copywriter and determine if they will be good for your business

Our Favorite Quotes:

• “People buy products that they value; that do not just make money, but they are equally focused on improving the world in some way.” - Dorene Wharton
• 
  
• “We want to support brands who do and say the things we believe in.” - Dorene Wharton

Resources Mentioned:

• Your About Page: The Secret Weapon to Build Trust and Future Sales
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• Grammarly
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• 10 Tips for Better Tourism Website Copywriting - Blog Post
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• Great COVID Safety Copy by Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours
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• Devour Tours
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• Impulse Travel
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• Taste of Thailand Food Tours
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• Great Benefits Copy by Rewind Dubrovnik

In this episode of the Tour Operator Start-Up Series, Sita, Ripley, and Nancy discuss how She Shapes History Tours can leverage social media as marketing tools to attract attention. They explore how Sita and Ripley can use their values and advocacy for social media to create content that will engage their demographic audience. They discuss different ways to brainstorm for social media content and how they can manage time between running digital marketing and the other aspects of She Shapes History. Sita and Ripley also describe what they learned from the success of their launch and share the next steps they plan to take for She Shapes History.

A discussion with Sachin Bansal from City explores and Regenerative Travel in India about doing tourism better for all stakeholders.

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Today on Tourpreneur we hear from three listeners who attended the TIS Seville. What did they learn? And what are they going to do differently in their businesses as a result of attending? TIS is a new one for me so here is the official blurb. 'Tourism Innovation Summit is aimed to help tourism and travel industry to face all those short and long-term challenges. Seville will host again three days of disruptive masterclasses where success stories of travel are going on stage. Digitalization and innovation will be main discussion and plenty of solutions will be presented to the tourism industry to address these challenges. An event to find the right partners to evolve their digital strategies and implement them.

A wide variety of technologies will be showcased in order to help tourism businesses become more competitive and, more importantly, restart the new ways of travel. There are many buzzwords here so we thought it would be useful to get the lowdown on this event from Three tourpreneurs who attended TIS and Arival @TIS

We have two first time guests on the show today, please welcome Filipa Loule Founder at Portuguese For a Day Tours Jon French - Regional Sales Manager, Redeam.com and let's welcome back Peter Syme, Tourpreneur, adventurer, and digital transformation expert

On this week's installment of Tourpreneur's What I Learned This Week, I talk about the latest tours, activities, and attractions research report released by Arival. I also share what I learned on Redeam's local coalition webinar. I discuss my effort learning Canva, why I am grateful to work in the tour and activities industry and a new health hack to help me lose weight and gain energy.

On today's episode, Tourpreneur host Shane Whaley talks content for tour operators with Arival's Director of Marketing, Jessica Gregory. Arival recently announced their content for tour operators masterclass which takes place on March 24th and 25th. Jessica and Shane discuss the content masterclass program and discuss why this is not a standard event but an actual course complete with homework and follow-up learning opportunities. This Arival Master Class looks at key trends in travel content, what today’s travelers are consuming, and provides hands-on learning for content creation (websites, blogs, emails, ads, social, text, photos, videos), dissemination, and management.  Learn what to create, how to make it, where to place it, how to manage it, and how to measure whether it’s working.

This week I was honored to be one of four judges at the first ever online tour guide throwdown hosted by Redeam. The event was a resounding success, well done Redeam and on this episode of What I Learned This Week I share with you why I admire tour guides even more following the event.

I share with you how I combated groupthink and how refreshing it was to spend two hours enjoying a virtual event that was positive and fun.

Check out the Tour Guide Throwdown Winners here.

In this episode, I reveal some of the trends I am seeing on our listener's survey and discuss new features I am scoping out for future episodes of the Tourpreneur Podcast.

I also invite a tour operator who is potentially looking for a new booking platform to join me for sessions with tour operator booking platforms on our brand new Meet the Res Tech series. I can be emailed at shane@tourpreneur.com

Arival has been conducting a survey of the impact of coronavirus since March 8. In this Arival Online event, Arival CEO Douglas Quinby walks through key findings and discusses them with leading tour and activity operators.

Akila McConnell of Unexpected Atlanta shares her journey from food blogger to tour operator. In this first of several episodes, Akila talks about the power of first mover advantage, finding market gaps you can creatively exploit, always iterating your tour design, why she's adopted Apple's philosophy of product lineup, plus how to use your team's strengths, how to balance the fun and difficult stories, and how to make your tour experience feel different than others.

Christy, Samantha and Sandra join the Women in Travel podcast to chat over a variety of topics Including how to promote safety in women's travel.

• Christy Hunter
• Samantha Hardcastle
• Sandra Weinacht

• Visit tourpreneur.com for more show notes.
• Tourpreneur is hosting two conferences! Join us in November in Marrakesh, Morroco for CONNECT:Multi-day, and in February in New York City for CONNECT:Profit. More info here.

In this episode, Lia Garcia, CEO of Practical Wanderlust and Louisville Food Tours, shares her journey from starting a blog to becoming one of the largest travel blogs in the world. She discusses her monetization strategy, which includes ad revenue and affiliate marketing. Leah emphasizes the importance of authenticity, trust, and storytelling in content creation. She also provides insights on partnering with bloggers and tour operators, highlighting the value of building relationships and offering competitive commissions. Leah advises tour operators to focus on personal storytelling and finding ways to differentiate themselves from OTAs. Lia Garcia shares her strategies for affiliate marketing, SEO, email marketing, and scaling a food tour business. She emphasizes the importance of using native affiliate links and leveraging bloggers to promote tours. Lia also discusses her use of keyword research tools like KeySearch and her preference for simple tech tools like WordPress, Flowdesk, and ConvertKit. She highlights the effectiveness of lead magnets in building an email list and explains how she uses automated sequences to target customers at different stages of the buying cycle. Lia also talks about the challenges of scaling her business and the importance of establishing trust and authenticity through storytelling.

Takeaways

• Authenticity, trust, and storytelling are key in content marketing.
• Building relationships with bloggers can drive sales and conversions.
• Tour operators should differentiate themselves from OTAs and offer competitive commissions.
• Personal storytelling and partnerships with bloggers can be effective strategies for tour operators.
• Consider the audience and buying cycle when selecting content creators. Consider using native affiliate links and partnering with bloggers to promote tours
• Use keyword research tools to optimize content and improve SEO
• Create lead magnets to incentivize email sign-ups and use automated sequences to target customers at different stages of the buying cycle
• Choose tech tools that are user-friendly and meet your specific needs
• Scaling a business comes with challenges, such as scheduling and finding the right balance
• Establish trust and authenticity through storytelling to build credibility with customers

00:00 — Introduction and Background

04:42 — Leah's Journey from Blogging to Content Marketing

08:17 — Monetization Strategy: Ad Revenue and Affiliate Marketing

11:48 — Partnerships with Tour Operators and Bloggers

16:33 — Developing a Blogging Strategy for Tour Operators

23:12 — Selecting the Right Content Creators for Partnerships

26:38 — Utilizing Booking Software and Automating Processes

29:28 — Differentiating Between Bloggers and Social Media Creators

33:05 — Optimizing SEO with Keyword Research

35:19 — Effective Email Marketing Strategies

38:15 — Choosing User-Friendly Tech Tools

45:14 — Challenges and Strategies for Scaling a Food Tour Business

53:25 — Building Trust and Credibility through Storytelling

Mentioned in this episode:

Join us for our TourpreneurCONNECT conferences!

November...

In part 3 of our blogging for tour operators guide, marketing expert Dorene Wharton returns to discuss the benefits of repurposing your content into fresh, new pieces for different platforms. We discuss what it means to repurpose content and the benefits of breathing new life into your existing content. Dorene shares her tips on breaking up your content into multiple pieces for different mediums and how thinking about ways to repurpose your content while you’re creating it can help save time and inspire new ideas. We discuss the pros and cons of releasing short videos versus long ones and how breaking your longer videos into bite-sized, shorter video clips can appeal to a broader audience. We discuss the value of creating share-worthy content and tips for encouraging your audience to share your content with others. Dorene also shares tips and strategies that tour operators can use to become more efficient with repurposing your content for multiple mediums and platforms and the tools and platforms you can use to repost your content and attract new audiences.

At Tourpreneur, it is our mission to make sure every tour operator who is a member of our Facebook group or a listener to the podcast achieves one thing, and that is to grow their profit margins. Our aim is to build upon the incredible foundation and values that were created by Shane, while adding more ways for you to learn and grow your business. The core of Tourpreneur will never change. We will continue to grow our community, producing the valued content you have all become accustomed to. If anything, between myself, Mitch And Pete, you will see even more of this free content being produced in the coming weeks and months, including a fresh new look to Tourpreneur.

This is just the start of what we are planning to bring to the Tourpreneur community and the start of a huge resource of courses and learning opportunities to help make your business more profitable. We can’t wait to show you these and more.

"Over 35,000 people have been connected to Maine’s craft alcohol producers since our tours began almost 10 years ago" Don Littlefield is a legend in the brewery tour business and he shares his 3 major learnings on growing a brewery tour business with us.

Today, we take a deep dive into the work of brewery tours and how the beer tour market has changed since COVID. Don Littlefield of Maine Brews Cruise shares the essential tips he wants tourpreneurs to learn and which digital marketing strategies are most effective for his business. He reveals why the merchandise is critical and why he chose FareHarbor as his company’s preferred online booking platform. He shares how he ensures a high guest satisfaction level and the indicators that made him realize he could expand his tour offerings. Don highlights some unusual ideas he tried with his tours and why working with your competitors can be mutually beneficial. He also shares how working with an established brewery tour company can help you get started and the three craft beers he would take with him if he was stranded on a desert island.

Today, Sita Sargeant rejoins us  to share some of the major changes that are currently happening at She Shapes History. Sita explains  what it’s been like to transition from working as a duo-team tour operation to becoming a ‘team of one.’ We discuss the benefits of stepping back and taking breaks from your tour business and how it can leave you feeling recharged, renergized, and remotivated.. Sita shares her goals of expanding the She Shapes History team and how she builds her customer’s excitement and anticipation about upcoming tour events while growing her email list. We also discuss how she incorporates first-person stories in her walking tours without sacrificing ethics, the collaborations and partnerships she’s currently working on, and the value of connecting with other tour operators

In this episode, Dan & Casey from Untethered Media join Chris to delve deep into the strategies that make your marketing click.

From the subtle art of Facebook ads that work like modern-day flyers, to the critical role of a well-designed website, we're covering all the bases.

We'll explore why it's not just about selling but building trust with potential customers and how the first impression your site makes can be the deal-breaker.

Overview

00:00 Entrepreneur call-in show with experts advising.

05:57 LinkedIn for B2B, Facebook for inspiration, Google Ads.

07:24 Embraces marketing, but could live without social media.

11:24 Ensure clear, direct messaging on website landing.

13:21 Focus on customer-centric design, not personal preference.

19:02 Repurposed Irish sheep blog for better traffic.

22:19 Overbooked venue, enjoyed parent's restaurant, shared discovery.

24:12 Assessing strategy effectiveness of client's Facebook group.

29:14 "New leader, marketing strategy, customer engagement, growth."

32:43 Working behind the scenes, adding more content.

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

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.

In this in-depth interview with GetYourGuide co-founder Tao Tao, discusses GetYourGuide's response to the coronavirus and the steps they are taking to support operators. Tao also goes deep on GetYourGuide's vision for its branded tour initiative GertYourGuide Originals, what does the online distribution look like in a post-coronavirus world, and what all of this means for operators of tours, activities, and attractions.

With thank to Arival Online and host Douglas Quinby.

In this roundup, Mitch, Chris, Pete and Nikki are joined by our multi-day podcast host Mat Newton! Today we talk about Mat's Podcast, the importance of owning your own marketing accounts, Pete at the Travel Tech Conference and news on our venue for Tourpreneur Connect!

Join us for Tourpreneur Connect Seville, November 27-30, 2023 https://tourpreneur.com/connect/

Sponsored by https://tripadmit.com/tap-to-tip/

TripAdmit’s powerful digital tipping solution that doesn’t require an app or any additional hardware, enable guests to tip without cash and guides to receive payments seamlessly.

Our tipping solution is entirely digital, providing a swift, effortless, and practical way for guests to tip digitally. Thanks to our ‘Tap to Tip’ technology, guests can now make contactless payments through their iPhone or Android phone, eliminating the need for bulky card readers.

How do you price, market and push your products amid a global downturn in travel demand? When should you discount? What messaging and promotions should you use? This workshop walks through best practices and key tips to keep your marketing and pricing on track.

Neil will share his story on how he grew the business, adapting to changes in the industry, how Brexit has affected his business and providing advice for others in the sector.

• Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur
• Visit our website: https://tourpreneur.com
• Visit Macs Adventure: https://www.macsadventure.com

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

Host Shane Whaley is joined by Fat Tire Tours and bike tour business owner Emilie to discuss Fat Tire Tours’ initiative to create a community and booking platform for bike tour operators worldwide. Our guests reveal what inspired the company to start the project and share what they learned about the bike tour industry during COVID-19. They highlight Fat Tire Tours’ strategies for helping bike tour operators grow within the community. They describe the company’s history and explain how they plan to market bike tours globally. They also discuss the core pillars of their project and underscore the importance of collaboration over competition. Our guests are grilled by Bike Tour Operator and regular contributor to Tourpreneur., Emilie Pelletier.

On today's Tourpreneur, content marketing expert Kyla Steeves shares her tips on Instagram for tour operators. Engagement feeds engagement. By initiating interactions on Instagram, you can get your brand noticed while showing off a bit of personality. Most Instagrammers are flattered when a brand compliments them. So, the more you engage, the more visibility and followers you’ll gain

Join the challenge at www.tourpreneur.com/challenge

John O'Sullivan of Depot Adventures joins us today to discuss his tour operator COVID survival and working with Amazon Explore. He shares the innovation needed to survive the economic crisis caused by COVID and the opportunities to continue trading by providing video experiences and virtual tours. John reveals what it is like to work with Amazon Explore and the investment in time you need to create a worthwhile partnership. He discusses the pro and cons of high-value private tours versus mass-market low-value tours. John also shares what equipment you will need to work with Amazon Explore and his views on whether this Amazon beta project is here to stay.

Tips for handling positive reviews. You ripped off the band-aid yesterday. Now, it’s time to reward yourself by replying to your glowing, rave reviews! Thank everyone for their kind words, and let them know you’re thrilled to hear they had an amazing time. Blush all you want. You earned those compliments! While you’re doing this, be on the lookout for outstanding reviews that would make great testimonials. It’s perfectly okay to say, “thank you for the wonderful review, can I share this on my website?” Most people will be happy to help you out and get featured

Mitch Bach is joined by Leigh Jameson and Jazz Dottin in a discussion focused on storytelling.

This is the first in a two-part discussion with these guests.

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

Today we are discussing the environmental crisis and the impact on the travel industry by industry expert Stuart McDonald of Travel Fish.

If you never find out what your guests actually think of your tours, you’ll never be able to provide the best experience possible. That’s why feedback is so beneficial. Your guests can tell you precisely what you’re doing right and wrong so that you know what to do more or less of. Sure, you can ask guests at the end of the tour, “did you have a good time?” Or peruse online reviews and mentions for tidbits of insight. But the most effective approach is to contact them directly. An intentional email can invite an honest opinion because no one else is around to listen or read. It’s just you and the guest.

Is Clubhouse for Tour Operators and Tour Guides? Everyone is talking about it, but not many can categorize it. The clubhouse is the new social platform that is a part conference call and part house party. Intrigued by Clubhouse then today you can be a fly on the wall as I record an actual session for you. Today, I’m moderating a Clubhouse session called ‘Clubhouse For Operators’ with three Clubhouse regulars, Christian ‘Clubhouse’ Watts, Mitch Bach, and Nikki Padilla Rivera.In today's podcast-meets-Clubhouse session, we unpack what Clubhouse has to offer to the travel industry and discover Christian’s, Mitch’s, and Nikki’s thoughts about the new kid on the Social Block. We discuss what they find alluring about the platform and why some love it. We discuss Clubhouse etiquette tips, how a session works,  and what makes it different from the now ubiquitous Zoom meeting. We also consider what the value of Clubhouse will be once the exclusive novelty aspect has worn off and how it will continue to attract high industry value speakers.

In part 5 of our blogging for tour operators guide, tourism marketing expert Dorene Wharton joins us to share her secrets to writing successful SEO-friendly blog posts.

She explains why Google keeps changing its algorithms. She discusses how tour operators can successfully navigate Google’s E-A-T guidelines and shares her best practices for keyword researching.

She offers advice for writing the best titles for blog posts and her favorite SEO tools.

Check out Dorene's SEO for tour operators Checklist

Dorene also highlights how bloggers can leverage external and internal links to get higher page rankings and underscores the importance of building trust and credibility in blog posts.

Overview

00:00 New marketing agency series featuring tour operators.

03:24 SEO and blogging are a balancing act.

09:33 Google provides comprehensive writing guidelines and resources.

12:24 Use multiple keywords to improve ranking on Google.

15:42 Domain authority measures likelihood of ranking on keywords.

16:42 Struggle with SEO, looking to improve.

21:26 SEMrush is robust but expensive; Keysearch recommended.

23:32 Switched from Yoast to Rank Math for speed.

27:19 Optimize website pictures for better SEO.

32:13 Choosing title: SEO vs. copywriting dilemma explained.

33:39 Steps for SEO: brainstorm titles, research, use numbers.

36:11 Write important articles for your business, despite SEO.

42:09 SEO blog checklist to guide through internal linking.

42:50 Internal linking boosts on-site SEO, website navigation.

47:46 Doreen shares SEO tips for improving ROI.

Midgi Moore joins me today to share the story behind Juneau Food Tours. She shares how to build relationships with restaurants and get them added to your food tour. She discusses the essential elements of a successful tour, how to create value and price your tour, and how to build your tour brand. Midgi discusses the advantages of working with travel agents, sustainability within tourism, and why she changed booking platforms. Midgi also shares how she vets tour guides, how her company is surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, and her top three tips for growing your tour business.

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.

In part 4 of our blogging for tour operators guide, marketing expert Dorene Wharton returns to share her favorite copywriting tips for tour operator bloggers.

From WeChat and Go-Jek to Grab, LINE, Meituan and more, Asia’s rising Super Apps are just about everywhere. Theyare offering pretty much everything and are challenging every sector of both online and offline commerce. How will they change the way your customers plan and book things to do? Walking us through the state of Super Apps and what they mean to creators and sellers of tours, activities and attractions is one of the region’s long-standing experts in digital travel, Brett Henry.

Welcome to Episode 68 of the Tourpreneur Podcast. Today's podcast is a little different from our usual format. I invited Miranda Peterson of Namaste in Nature onto the show to share mental health and wellness strategies and tips for tour operators as we all struggle through the COVID-19 crisis.

The brand new Travel Industry Mavericks series kicks off with a discussion about the challenges facing OTAs. Peter Syme and Christian Watts join me today to discuss what is happening in the tourism industry and share their predictions for the future. We also discuss why we decided to create the Travel Industry Mavericks round table series on the Tourpreneur Podcast.

Trish Higgins bought Cap’n Fish’s cruises in idyllic Boothbay Harbor, Maine: known for its puffins, whale-watching, and picturesque lighthouses. So what could go wrong? For starters, she signed the docs for her new tour business just days before the COVID-19 epidemic shut down most of the country, adding a totally new and unforeseen obstacle to tour operations, planning, and staff communication. But needless to say, Trish was determined to make the best of it and help the team at Cap’n Fish - a family-run business that had been around since the 1930’s - to reach their full potential. And we’re all about tackling challenges head first, and sharing those experiences when we live to tell the tale. So if you’re curious how Trish managed to help Cap’n Fish thrive, even during a pandemic, here are some of her key takeaways. She shared some first-hand tips for anyone who might consider purchasing (or selling) a tour business of their own.

This month I have spoken with 2-3 tour operators each day. Some of those conversations you can hear on the Tourpreneur Podcast in our COVID-19 check-in. In this episode, I share why I am so inspired by tour operators optimism and resiliency. I also share why those touting the Law of Attraction (a.k.a. The Secret) across the tour operator Facebook groups are promoting a delusional type of positive thinking which could end up harming your tour business. That's not to say they are not well-intentioned but as the Arctic Monkeys' once sang 'don't believe the hype!'

Mitch Bach talks with Brian Jewell, the Vice President and Executive Editor of Group Travel Leader, a media company representing tens of thousands of tour operators, travel agents, trip planners, many of whom have been in business for decades. Brian provides endless free resources for his community of small travel provider, and has learned countless lessons from decades in the industry.

There's a whole community of small, outbound multi-day tour operators who have been in business since the years and decades after WWII, since the beginning of the explosive growth of mass tourism. Those operators are at the ends of their careers, and the companies they've built offer a huge opportunity for acquisition, and also have learned lessons about finding niche markets and solidifying their business through personal relationships.

• Show notes
• Visit Group Travel Leader
• Brian on LinkedIn

Leanne joins me today to share how she started her own tour business in 2019, navigated the challenges of 2020 and COVID-19, and is entering 2021 fully booked. She discusses the business pivots she has made to focus on the local community and shares how she is making connections through social media. She discusses OTAs, insurance, and safety. Leanne also shares three key lessons all tour operators can benefit from by going on other types of tours in other cities, continuing to tweak your tours, and volunteering and giving back to your community.

In this episode, Mitch converses with Arnaud Azoulay, CEO of Babylon Tours, a walking tour company specializing in museum tours across Europe.Arnaud is a maverick and an outlier. He’s one of the rare walking tour companies that has scaled its brand into nearly a dozen cities. And he’s done it on a lean team and budget, by focusing on the basics: a quality tour and quality guides. He’s not distracted by all the tech talk, and he sells primarily through OTAs.In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• Arnaud’s success story from a 30-something Paris guide to scaling a tour business to 10 cities.
• His organic and gradual approach to growth
• The importance of combo products, and how he sells them
• Why he still offers a personal human touch despite using automations
• Why he firmly believes in using OTAs as his main sales channel, and his experience with Viator Accelerate
• His focus on the quality of experience
• What’s been working for his OTA listings
• How he gets repeat customers as a day tour operator
• What he’s learned from In N Out Burger in California

As always, much more exclusive members-only content available on tourpreneur.com/plus

Mitch Bach begins Tourpreneur's IMPACT series with an interview with Kat Brogan of Mercat Tours in Edinburgh, Scotland, whose mission is to "make meaningful connections" through the power of storytelling.

The end of the interview encapsulates the point of this new series, so be sure to listen to the end. Our IMPACT podcasts are about how travel companies around the world answer the questions: what are you doing to make a meaningful impact in your business, community and the tourism industry?

Kat is leading a company that takes this seriously. Here are just some of the topics and initiatives we cover:

• How important it is to create a culture of trust in your team.
• The creation of "The Mercat Deal"—a pledge to her team and the city of Edinburgh to do right by everyone that's a stakeholder in the community.
• Her commitment to offering her team members a living wage, with permanent contracts, guaranteed "living hours", and profit sharing bonuses.
• How Kat empowers and connects with her guides through a huge variety of channels, in-person and virtually.
• How Kat assesses her whole customer journey to give the feedback her entire team wants, using formal and informal assessments, anonymous surveys, secret shoppers and more, in order to take a "360" look at her business and team.
• Mercat's participation in "Our Stories, Our City" initiative to raise money for those on the margins through the power of storytelling.

Learn more:

• Learn about the impact they're making on Edinburgh through their Our Stories Our City initiative, in partnership with several local organizations.
• View The Mercat Deal, Mercat's promises to its team and community about what they're doing to ensure they're a responsible, ethical, quality participant in the local environment and global tourism industry.

We are receiving more and more questions from tour operators who want to learn Instagram Reels but are unsure where to start.

These questions have inspired Shane to dig into Instagram Reels for Tour Operators starting next week where he will try an experiment at Arival San Diego to see if he can learn Instagram Reels (and overcome his camera nerves!)

Shane's plan is to record a quick Instagram Reel after every session/workshop, he will share his #1 learning from each session. Follow Tourpreneur Instagram to watch Shane's insights from Arival and feel free to give him feedback on the reels, #AlwaysBeLearning right?

In 2022 we will be bringing you lots more content and Instagram reels tips for tour operators.

Choosing a tour operator booking platform is one of the most important decisions we will make for our tour business. We are spoilt for choice with over 160 booking platforms offering services to tours, attractions, and activities. We decided to create the Meet the Res tech series. These conversations are unique in that you will be able to listen to a res tech, a res tech customer, and a tour operator who is in the market for a new tour operator booking platform. You will hear an authentic conversation and is about as far away from a sales pitch as you can get. We don't do the keynote, conference format exec pitch here at Tourpreneur, our goal is to deliver you a genuine conversation full of value. We hope you enjoy it!

Kevin O'neil describes all the challenges he has faced when building his business including losing his location, legal challenges and having a heart attack!

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Check out Kevin's business: https://destinywateradventures.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-oneil-787798156/

Spend today updating your Google My Business Profile. Most searchers will see whether your tour company is legit by scanning your GMB listing first. So, make a great first impression by including everything they need to know. Kyla Steeves joins us to give us some quick tips on how to optimize Google My Business - grab the free workbook at www.tourpreneur.com/challenge

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.

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.

Amanda, Carol, Zakia, Caroline and Mary all moved from jobs outside of tourism to become tour operators. they share their stories to help those thinking the same.

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Visit our website: https://tourpreneur.com

Distribution dynamics in tours, activities and attractions are rapidly changing. Online travel agencies (OTAs) are growing fast, raising lots of capital, acquiring reservation systems and driving all sorts of innovations. This poses many important questions to operators of all sizes and segments. This roundtable of OTA leaders and operators will debate them all—and answer tough audience questions.

Arival CEO Douglas Quinby reveals more about 'Your Revival' a virtual one day summit which focuses on how tours, activities and attractions are reopening and reassuring nervous travelers. Douglas also explains why the summit is 'not another freakin webinar' but offers interaction such as themed roundtables and access to 1:1 meetings with Arival Experts.

On Day 4 of the 30 Day Tour Operator Things to Do Challenge, we are joined by Checkfront's Director of Marketing, Angela Heald and we are talking all about Treating Your Tour Guides. Genuine employee recognition goes a long way. One simple act of appreciation can make your tour guides feel valued, boost their confidence and motivation, give them a reason to go the extra mile and keep them coming back season after season.

Arival is not just an in-person conference for the tour operator industry, they also publish research papers, survey results, tour operator spotlights, articles, and interviews with activity and tour operator interviews. Much of this is free of charge so please do check them out if you aren't already.

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.

For today's challenge, we tackle the important subject of improving your website speed and why you need to make sure all of your pages load fast on all devices. Run a test on Google’s PageSpeed Insights by entering each page URL into the Analyze bar, and then see if there are any problems you can quickly rectify today. Do this for both desktop and mobile.

Food Tour Operator Theresa Nemetz of Milwaukee Food Tours joins us on the Tourpreneur Podcast. Theresa shares with us how she pivoted her food tour business during the Coronavirus pandemic to generate revenue and grow her business despite the lockdown.

I love working in the tours and activities industry because the vast majority of tour operators are willing to share not just their success story but how they achieved success, with other tour and activity providers.

My inbox blew up with Tourpreneur listeners asking me to interview Theresa on the show following a blog post she wrote titled 'Three Ways Tour Operators Can Grow During the COVID-19 Crisis.'

I wrote to Theresa and she agreed to come on the show and share more about her pivot. This is a rare success story in these tough times and I can't thank Theresa enough for coming on the show to discuss how the pivot came about and how she executed.

Listen to the incredible journey of how Steve Williams found his way into the industry and helped transform some local operators before building his own business.

Take note of the wasted $1m on Facebook ads and the costs of acquiring customers!

• Check out Trunk Travel
• Check out Steve's LinkedIn

Have you ever wanted to be a secret shopper? Today is your chance! Book another tour in your destination or somewhere nearby — preferably not with your direct competitor — and see how they run things from a guest perspective! Why not gather intel and have fun at the same time? Just be sure to take a mental note of everything they do. What info do you get before the tour? How do they upsell? Is check-in a breeze? Do they use paper waivers? What’s your tour guide like? How do they make the experience better? Do they ask for tips? Reviews? See if there’s anything that you do better, or can take away to improve. Sometimes, we can get so stuck in the traditional way of doing things that we neglect to see how we can be better. Comparison isn’t always bad. By witnessing how someone else operates, you can get fresh ideas to adopt & tweak or validation that you’re already a few steps ahead.

Jaume Vidal, Tiqets Regional Manager joins me today to discuss how Spain and Portugal are reopening tourist attractions amidst the coronavirus pandemic. He also shares with us what it is really like working at Tiqets. He explains how the Tiqets platform works and how it helps travelers find new attractions and events to explore. He explains why he believes Portugal fared better than Spain during the coronavirus pandemic and how the pandemic has impacted international tourist travel. He discusses how Barcelona venues are communicating their safety and security measures to reassure travelers to visit attractions and how the venues are promoting to local markets. Jaume also shares what it’s really like to work at Tiqets and explains how Tiqets is currently marketing its services to help local venues increase their bookings.

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

This is the Story of Blue Fern Travel, the DC Tour company which tells the history of neighborhoods through food. Blue Fern Travel focuses on supporting local businesses, specifically, women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Today, Mary and Stefan share the Blue Fern Travel ethos and how they work with organizations helping those in need in the city. They share how their food tour business started and how they gained funding for their new venture. They reveal how their community reacted to their business and why it's essential to work with staff, management, and owners when securing vendors. They explain the business skills they had to learn and the methods they use to design their food tours. They discuss why they chose their online tour booking platform and how they market their tours. They also share advice for hiring people to help promote your tour business and what tourpreneurs can do to help their communities.

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.

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!

Today's guest shares with us some of her lessons from 30 years of running a tour business. We cover a lot of ground including marketing tours, dealing with journalists, websites, hiring and managing tour guides and chatbots! 

Lauren Hefferon joins us to discuss how she started, developed, and expanded the bike tour business Ciclismo Classico.

She explains the significance of Ciclismo Classico’s website for booking and why she is keen on talking directly with her customers before they book.

She shares how she made use of the Zoom culture to hold virtual events during the COVID pandemic.

Lauren also highlights the power of event marketing and offers advice for cultivating effective public relations.

In this second part of our interview with Akila McConnell of Unexpected Atlanta, Mitch Bach speaks with her on a wide range of topics, including:

• how virtual tours became 75% of her business, even after the pandemic
• how she's grown her experience box business to shipping 20,000+ units a year
• working with corporate clients
• doing a complete rebranding of a successful business
• finding your "zone of genius"
• understanding your business's end game, and crafting a business plan
• having difficult conversations with yourself and your team
• pricing and profit margins
• her top tip for conducting market research

...and much more!

**Tourpreneur+ members also get an extra 40 minutes of our interview, in which she covers how she trains and maintains her guide staff, and her top software pics for running a business!

More at tourpreneur.com/plus

In this episode of the Tourpreneur Podcast for tour operators, you can learn how you can help shape the content for future episodes. I explain why creating content for tours, activities, and experiences is challenging and ask you for your feedback on how I can create the content that will help you grow your tour business. The survey is available here - www.tourpreneur.com/survey

I've never really understood how companies make money from a free walking tour and John kindly walks us (sorry for the pun) through it. He's a very passionate entrepreneur and in this episode, we had a great chat about how he got started with his tour business, how he promotes his tours, the business model behind free walking tours, managing tour guides, the OTA landscape, digital marketing etc

If you haven't listened to part one of this two part series, then I would recommend going back and listening first to episode 183.

Mitch is back with two guests, which are two tour guides, Jazz Dottin and Leigh Jameson.

Both of whom spent a lot of time thinking not only about the craft of storytelling, which we talked about in a great discussion last time. But also content. What kinds of information should you be looking for? How do you tell the whole story of a destination, the full, complete picture of the history of a place and how do you do it in a way that connects truly with your audience?

Throughout this episode, you'll be hearing not only from our two guests, but also from your fellow Tourpreneur community members who have submitted recordings of their thoughts about storytelling. And you'll be hearing from them throughout the episode as well.

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

Today Otehlia and I dive into the world of Instagram marketing for tour operators and strategies to help grow your tour business. Otehlia offers insights into how Instagram can work for tour operators and which tools to use to maximize your reach. She shares her personal approach to Instagram and why creating an Instagram community is integral to publicizing your tour business. We discuss the unique role that Instagram can play in marketing tours and why it shouldn’t be your main point of sale application. She also shares her process of trial and error when maneuvering algorithms in Instagram and offers a few tips for getting more views.

One of Shane's favorite phrases is #AlwaysBeLearning. We wear so many different hats as a tour operator. along with running the business, you might also dabble in accounting, digital marketing, maintenance, HR, customer service, and guiding. But there’s always room to improve or diversify your skillset. Shane and Ryan discuss the importance of learning new skills when it comes to growing our business and how it can help you avoid fake experts and save you money!

Jason Heffernan operates a unique rainforest experience in the Daintree rainforest in Queensland Australia. Listen to his story of how he used distribution to help with growth.

https://backcountrybliss.com.au/

Join our community of 10,000+ members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

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.

Amanda, Carol, Zakia, Caroline and Mary discuss those women who inspire them and why we need more female mentors in our industry.

As always, we are looking for more women to share their voices. Please do email hello@tourpreneur.com if you wish to be considered.

Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur

Visit our website: https://tourpreneur.com

Social media expert, Social Tonic's Shawn Teasley is joined by tourism  marketing expert Chris Torres along with tour operators Alan, and Amber to discuss the fine details of Facebook marketing for tour operators. They discuss the top three things tour operators should know before working with marketing agencies and demystify the secrets behind making impactful Facebook ads for tour operators. They highlight the importance of keeping social media profiles active—especially during the pandemic. They also consider how tour operators should spend their advertising money beyond Facebook ads and underscore the role of communication in collaborating with tour marketing agencies.

Just about every operator who I come across has a horror story about working with a marketing agency. This has left them with a bitter taste in their mouth and wary of trusting another to do the job they want them to do.

Believe me, as an agency owner, this makes my job so much harder, but as an Agency owner, a lot of this ‘bad experience’ comes down to how an agency educates its customers and clearly manages expectations. In some instances, it also comes down to out-and-out lying on the part of the agency.

So many agencies out there will offer guarantees and promises they simply can’t keep because it is simply impossible for them to do so. If agencies could guarantee number one on google rankings or x10 increase in bookings then we would all be doing it, but there are so many nuances that make these promises impossible.

In this episode of Tourpreneur, I want to debunk three myths about working with a Marketing Agency and tell you some home truths, some of which you may find surprising.

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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.

Tips about asking for Google Reviews. It’s no secret that reviews are a ranking factor for Google My Business listings. If you want to earn that coveted spot on the local snack pack, you’ve got to get as many recent, quality reviews as possible.

RocketRez's Joe Robinson and Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours' Kim Wark join us today to share the story of RocketRez and describe what the RocketRez experience is like from the tour and attraction’s operator point of view. Joe reveals the benefits of using an all-in-one booking, inventory, and sales solution. He highlights the onboarding experience for clients and shares how the pricing model works. Kim discusses the platform's customization options and reveals what it is like to update rates, schedules, and locations. We also discuss the tour and attraction websites where you can see the RocketRez services and solutions at work.

Katy Clarke of Untold Italy chats with Mitch Bach and shares her insights on building a successful multi-day tour business in Italy through podcasting, affiliate marketing, and creating connections and community.

• 00:00 Starting a tour business in Italy? Katie Clark from Untold Italy shares her insights on building a multi-day tour business.
• 08:07 I have a strong relationship with Day Tour operators in Italy, which has resulted in successful revenue from affiliate sales, advertising, and sponsorship.  
• 14:40 Podcasting is a great way to build relationships and market tour businesses.
• 19:35 Create a travel podcast to build a global business, provide value, and use affiliate marketing to make high margin revenue.
• 28:04 Developing a brand for off-the-beaten-path Italian experiences can lead to sustainable tourism and earning a little chunk off of recommendations.
• 36:14 Creating connections and community through shared experiences can create lifelong friendships and memories.
• 44:06 Be honest and collaborate to get the best results, rather than trying to go it alone.

Visit Untold Italy

Mitch Bach shares with us why he set up the immersive training company Tripschool and how he uses his 17 year experience to help you become a better tour guide and/or director and tour guide.

TripSchool offers immersive tour director & guide training experiences online and around the world! In this episode, we cover many topics, but this is not a sales pitch. Mitch shares with us how to build an engaging tour experience which will help to grow your tour business. I quizzed Mitch about the Tour Director Certification Course and if it would help me with my plans to set up my own brewery tour company. ( An idea that has been derailed since COVID-19 but I am still thinking about it but probably in 2021.) Mitch is not just a tour guide trainer, he also works as a tour guide and towards the end of the chat, Mitch shares with us one of his tour guide secrets that always blows the minds of his tour guests, it blew my mind as well.

In this first episode of our Multi-Day series with Mat Newton, Ruth Franklin shares her journey to success in the B2B tour business, discussing the importance of having documents in place, creating a succinct pitch deck, connecting with product managers and CEOs on LinkedIn, and making connections and adding value to stand out in a competitive market at trade shows.

• 00:00 🤝 Pick 10 of your "dream clients" to start selling to as a strategy for success in the tour and travel industry.
• 08:09 💡 Ruth's journey to success in the B2B tour business is discussed, including the importance of having documents in place and creating a succinct pitch deck to share with prospective partners.
• 13:07 🤔 Use risk assessment and conversation to plan a successful tour and share your lessons with your younger self.
• 19:08 🤝 Connecting with product managers and CEOs on LinkedIn, I generated over 250,000 in revenue and created potential for multi-million dollar revenue stream over the next 10 years.
• 28:16 🤝 Building relationships with businesses takes time and effort, be social and friendly online but keep personal rants to a minimum.
• 33:25 🤝 Connecting with your tourism board and setting up in a coffee shop can help first-time exhibitors get the most out of trade fairs, with potential for 15 current partners, 20 new contacts, and 3 quotations already received.
• 40:22 🤝 Make connections and add value to stand out in a competitive market at trade shows by researching and pre-working, and follow-up emails can help keep the conversation going.

Visit Secret Paradise Maldives

Ruth on LinkedIn

In today's bonus episode, we share tips on how to give your tour operator website an extra SEO boost by adding relevant local keywords wherever possible. Day 22 of the 30 Day Tour Operator Challenge by Checkfront.  Make sure to visit tourpreneur.com/challenge to grab your free PDF with even more keyword tips for SEO

Most think of online travel agencies (OTAs) as simply online resellers of other operators' products. But Taiwan-based KKDay is not your typical OTA. They are getting into customer delivery with KKDay branded experiences. In this talk, the company's regional executive director explains why.

In this quick call, we check in with Karin Risko, the tour operator behind City Tour Detroit to learn how she is coping with the COVID-19 lockdown and how she plans to come back stronger.

"You know, I feel like I'm starting over again for the third time. In 2012, I was getting ready, gung ho, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following year in 2013, again I'm revving up, and then my boyfriend passed away suddenly. And I really had no clue after that if I was going to go forth, because suddenly I had no passion for the business. This time it's a little bit different. I still do have passion, so I'm just kind of sitting back, I guess, sit back, breathe. Be grateful for what you do have. There's a lot of people, you know, we don't have to be on the front lines out there exposing ourself to this disease."

It's January, a time for new years resolutions and goal setting.

In today's episode, Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley asked 11 activity and tour operators what one skill or competency they are focusing on to grow their business in 2022.

If you are able to help our guests with advice on where they can master that skill or competency please share your thoughts with them and others in our online community.

Shane also shares why he made the decision to attend Arival San Diego and reveals new features coming soon to Tourpreneur.

If you enjoyed today's episode please consider giving us a rating and review on your podcast app and sharing it with your peers.