
Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast
Tourpreneur is a community of passionate tour business owners eager to improve their skills and increase their profits.
Our community is passionate about helping each other. As small tour business owners, we understand it’s a lonely job, a daily grind, and easy to become a busy fool… working harder but not smarter.
The Tourpreneur community helps you get advice from your peers as well as experts in the areas you need to grow your business and make it more profitable.
Whether you explore our hundreds of free articles, podcasts and other resources, or join our Tourpreneur+ community, we’re here to help!
Latest episodes

Apr 6, 2022 • 58min
How to Staff Up 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.

Mar 30, 2022 • 54min
The Story Behind Taste of SLO Walking Food Tour
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.

Mar 23, 2022 • 1h 7min
How Liselot Built A Beer and Brewery Tour, the Story Behind BeerSecret
Liselot Caura reveals how she took her brewery tour business BeerSecret from a side hustle to a full-time business and outlines some of the challenges she faced.Liselot joins us today to share the story behind BeerSecret. She describes her beginnings in the brewery industry and reveals what led her to switch from sales and promotion in breweries to leading beer tastings and tours.She discusses how long it took her to take BeerSecret from a side hustle to a full-time business and outlines the challenges and lessons she learned along the way.Liselot also provides advice on building relationships with bars and breweries as a food tour operator and underscores the value of knowing your customers.

Mar 16, 2022 • 59min
Lessons Learned Starting a Tour Business in Paris During A Pandemic
The Tour Operator Start Up series is back, Simon Burke joins Nikki Padilla Rivera today to discuss starting a tour business, in fact, a sidecar motorcycle tour company during the COVID-19 pandemic.He explains the hoops, logistics, and licenses when starting a tour vehicle business in Paris. He describes how Brexit and the pandemic impacted his start-up and explains how he came up with the concept of Txango Tours.Simon also underscores the value of taking yourself out of your comfort zone and highlights the role of passion in running a tour company.

Mar 9, 2022 • 49min
How You Can Increase Tour Bookings and Reviews with Photos
Ryan O'Grady, founder of Fotaflo, shares how tour businesses can boost bookings and reviews with photo memories. He highlights the power of 'memory marketing' and sending personalized photos to guests. The podcast discusses the benefits of using photos to enhance customer engagement and brand connections in the tourism industry.

Mar 2, 2022 • 1h 7min
What I Learned Running a Tour Business for Over 30 Years
Lauren Hefferon, with over 30 years of experience in bike tours, shares her journey of building Ciclismo Classico from the ground up. She discusses the importance of personal connections with customers and traditional versus digital marketing strategies. Lauren emphasizes the power of tailored experiences, navigating customer trust in online bookings, and engaging event marketing. She also highlights utilizing Zoom for virtual events during the pandemic and the significance of effective public relations to enhance visibility.

Feb 23, 2022 • 1h 1min
How An Episode of Top Gear Inspired Jamie to Start His Own Tour business
Jamie Robinson joins us today, he divulges his tactics to effective, authentic marketing on a budget. He describes his journey to being a tourpreneur and explains how an episode of the show, Top Gear, inspired him to start his experiences business based around two iconic cars, a London Cab and an Indian Taxi.He explains how to engage with a community without sounding like a pushy salesperson and discusses how he uses social media to promote his business.Jamie also explains why Tourpreneurs shouldn’t be afraid to give away free experiences or services and underscores the importance of remembering your mission in business.

Feb 16, 2022 • 1h 8min
Navy Veteran Reveals How She Built a Successful Winery and Brewery Tour Business
From Navy cryptographer to successful tour business owner. Renee Ventrice of Cork and Keg Tours joins us today to discuss how she built a luxury winery and brewery tours business. She walks us through how she created local partnerships with breweries and wineries and outlines how she designed her tour business from the ground up.Renee also discusses why evaluating and reevaluating friction points in our tour business’s process is key to growth.She describes how community partnerships and nonprofits could be tour businesses' best marketing allies.Renee highlights the importance of executing detailed market research and underscores the value of differentiating and elevating yourself from other tour operators.

Feb 9, 2022 • 52min
Arival San Diego – 9 Takeaways from 3 Tour Operators
Join Brian Cain from Crawl New Orleans, first-time attendee Jarrod Riddle of Spirit of Arizona Tours, and returning guest Heather Fortes of Sactown Bites as they reflect on their eye-opening experiences at Arival San Diego. They delve into the value of networking and problem-solving, share actionable strategies for growing their businesses, and discuss the latest marketing trends to attract Gen Z. Brian also reveals insights from collaborating with Viator accelerate, sparking a vibrant conversation about community support and new strategies in the tour industry.

Jan 28, 2022 • 12min
Shane’s Big Hairy Audacious Instagram Reels Experiment
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.