Ambrose Bittner, a seasoned operator specializing in bespoke tours across Asia, shares insights on navigating the travel industry's post-COVID landscape. He discusses the importance of investing in back-office infrastructure to streamline operations. The conversation highlights challenges in staffing and training, and the delicate balance between personal life and business growth. They also explore emerging opportunities in Japan's travel market, emphasizing the significance of destination knowledge and strategic marketing for success.

Lia Garcia, CEO of Practical Wanderlust and Louisville Food Tours, shares her inspiring journey from blogger to a leading voice in travel. She dives into her successful monetization tactics, emphasizing authenticity and storytelling. Lia highlights strategies for affiliate marketing, using SEO tools, and the power of email lists with lead magnets. The importance of partnerships with bloggers and the challenges of scaling her business also take center stage, offering valuable insights for tour operators wanting to thrive in a competitive market.

Peter Seim, an experienced tour operator, and Chris Torres, a fellow industry expert, discuss the challenges tour operators face in the digital age due to changes from platforms like Airbnb. They emphasize the importance of building direct sales through SEO and targeted advertising. The duo also highlights the critical need for strategic local partnerships to ensure business resilience. Listeners will gain insights into effective content production, the evolving marketing landscape, and upcoming resources to enhance their Google presence.

Guests Sherri Brown and Cherrye Moore discuss their experiences and the strategies that have helped them target new markets, focusing on both local and corporate sectors.Host Peter Syme shares his insights on effective pricing strategies, managing business growth, and best practices for training and integrating new team members.Throughout the episode, topics such as adapting to market changes, optimising group tour logistics, and customising experiences are explored.Overview00:00 Tourpreneur podcast highlights growth and challenges ahead.07:21 Local market stability crucial for business success.15:29 Shocked by flight price difference and market saturation.18:09 Long wait times impacting small group tours.24:27 Two-way conversation for efficient training methods.27:24 Challenges with growing team and shared calendar.36:49 Cater to corporate customers for better margins.40:01 Ask for budget first when planning events.44:56 Create custom Italian American group travel tours.48:12 Networking grows organically, requires old-fashioned hard work.55:13 Expanding travel services to Calabria for Americans.59:18 Senior leadership team takes strategic retreats together.01:04:19 Thank you for opportunities and challenges ahead.

Explore the strategic balancing act of expanding a tour business, weighing local opportunities against entering new markets. Discover how AI can optimize operations while maintaining essential human connections in B2B interactions. Dive into asset management and pricing strategies that cater to the evolving demographics of travelers. Unpack the significance of financial oversight and technology integration in adjusting to industry shifts. Gain insights from experienced entrepreneurs navigating the travel landscape's challenges and possibilities.

Discover innovative strategies for building successful teams as Peter McGovern shares insights on strategic hiring and aligning with core values. Emphasizing diversity and effective communication, he explains how to nurture strong internal dynamics. Explore the importance of structured planning in hiring and the challenges of remote work in today’s world. With actionable advice for entrepreneurs at any stage, this discussion highlights the essential role of company culture in fostering growth and success.

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 notesVisit Group Travel LeaderBrian on LinkedIn

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.Overview00:00 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.

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.

Mitch Bach speaks with Jessica Off, founder of Guess Where Trips, an e-commerce company creating physical and digital surprise road trips for customers across Canada and the U.S.Jessica is a serial travel entrepreneur, including work at G Adventures. In this episode, she talks about what led her to start an e-commerce product-based travel business, after looking into tour operating and multi-day trips.This episode will give tour operators the inspiration to think about ancillary product revenue streams that can complement their in-person business, utilizing the same destination knowledge and supplier connections to offer experiences to a new customer base!Visit Guess Where Trips home pageEpisode show notesWe talk about:the design thinking behind crafting self-guided tourswhy the element of surprise is so crucial to the experienceher experience working with content creatorshow B2C trade shows have worked out for her trying to sell her productwhy she decided to ditch multi-day surprise tripsthe importance of collecting email addresses at trade showsfinding the right market for the trips, and why big cities don’t workworking with local vendors to support them