Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

In this insightful discussion, SEO expert Chris sheds light on crucial strategies for optimizing your website for better Google rankings. He emphasizes the importance of site speed and warns against detrimental link farms. Chris also shares tips on creating high-quality content, making it voice search-friendly, and managing backlinks effectively. Tune in to elevate your website's performance with these quick but essential SEO dos and don'ts!

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.

Tourpreneur believes our industry needs more diverse voices so welcome to the first of our Women in Travel series.   In this episode, the first 4 four recordings with Amanda Walkins, Zakia Moulaoui Guery, Caroline Conner and Carol El Hawary, they discuss how women can be represented in travel, from top level C-Suite positions to speaking at events.   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 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur Visit the website: https://tourpreneur.com

The Experience Economy in Tours and Activities with Joe Pine In this episode, Chris Torres, Mitch Bach and Pete Syme talk with author Joe Pine to discuss The Experience Economy and how this can help deliver transformational experiences in tours and activities. We discuss... - What the Experience Economy is - How to design an experience - How to deliver an experience at every stage - Delivering transformational experiences in day tours and multi-day tours - How the Experience Economy fits in with the digitisation of tours and activities Join the Tourpreneur community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tourpreneur Grab a copy of The Experience Economy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633697975/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_MHM65SGJTGJK6TK4CF49

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. 

'How lucky i am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.' After three years, Tourpreneur's Shane Whaley announces why he is leaving the show and revealed why he is thrilled to hand over the reins of the podcast and community to three industry veterans. Tourpreneur, the leading educational podcast and online community for tour operators around the world, will be under new ownership as of 11 May 2022, with big announcements to follow on 18 May regarding the new trajectory of the business. The new owners are travel industry veterans Mitch Bach, Co-Founder of TripSchool and Campfire; Peter Syme, founder of multiple tour operations; and Chris Torres, Founder and Director of Tourism Marketing Agency and the Digital Tourism Show.“I’m thrilled to announce that I’m taking on a new role as Head of Community at FareHarbor,” said Shane Whaley, Founder and Publisher of Tourpreneur. “One of my concerns in accepting this role was leaving all of the Tourpreneur listeners and community members in the lurch. Over the pandemic especially, I’ve received so many messages from tour operators around the world saying that the Tourpreneur community has kept them going during these tough times. So I’m thrilled to hand over the reins of the Tourpreneur to these incredibly experienced and knowledgeable industry professionals. I know that Mitch, Peter, and Chris will take Tourpreneur forward and give our subscribers an even better chance of growing their profits from their business.”Tourpreneur began in 2019  to connect tour operators in an otherwise often lonely professional journey. By sharing real stories and connecting through an engaged, supportive community, tourism entrepreneurs can build their businesses with the help of others, rather than in isolation.“Taking over the Tourpreneur podcast and site is a fun challenge for all of us,” said Torres. “Tourpreneur has been such a big part of the industry that it’s an honor and a privilege to try to take this forward and keep it growing.”The Tourpreneur podcast currently has over 250 episodes, offering a breadth and depth of helpful, actionable content for tour operators.“It’s probably worth saying that Tourpreneur will be different going forward,” said Syme. “Shane is a media professional and, if you look at the numbers, there’s only one of Shane and there are three of us trying to take over and fill his shoes. The tone of the show will certainly be different going forward just based on our backgrounds and expertise. But the focus on community is still 100% there; it’s all about the operators.”Going forward, tour operators around the world can look forward to more resources, more education, and more content coming from the new owners of Tourpreneur. For tour operators attending Arival in Berlin at the end of May, the new owners will be hosting Hot Seat sessions to tap into their depth of tourism industry insight and experience. “I am very sad to be leaving because Tourpreneur is my baby,” Whaley said. “It’s definitely bittersweet but I am excited to see where Tourpreneur goes from here. The growth potential for all our subscribers who listen with these three industry veterans at the helm is massive.”

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, 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.

Brian Cain, owner of CRAWL New Orleans, and Jarrod Riddle from Spirit of Arizona Tours share invaluable insights on staffing tour businesses. They discuss key strategies for identifying when to hire and how to empower new employees to deliver authentic experiences. Brian recounts his journey from solo operator to managing nine guides. The conversation also explores the intricacies of recruiting and interviewing talented tour guides, the pros and cons of employment models, and effective management techniques to ensure a high-quality tour experience.

Angee Johnson joins us today to share how she built and grew Taste of SLO Walking Food Tour.She discusses how she researched the San Luis Obispo tourism market before starting her business and outlines how she networked and collaborated with bars and restaurants.She talks about the point in the journey she started investing in paid advertising and reveals her secret sauce to maximizing Facebook ads.Angee also underscores the value of maintaining a working relationship with bar and restaurant staff and highlights the importance of keeping your tours fresh.