Babylon Tours: Scaling a Lean Walking Tour Company

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