Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

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. 

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.

What exactly is the 'B side' of tours? Pedro DeMarche, of Spanish tour operator, Sixthrills sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shared more about the mission of their company.

In this inspirational episode, Paul Melhus, the founder of Toursbylocals sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shared more about the mission of Toursbylocals. Paul tells us how he was inspired to start Toursbylocals following a visit to the Great Wall of China where he enjoyed a tour by locals (who then tried selling them keepsakes in exchange.)Paul Melhus takes us on a journey from that flight home to growing a network of just over 4,000 tour guides in 923 locations in 160 countries around the world.We also learn how Toursbylocals vet all their tour guides, how they market their tours and why they won't take on new tour guides unless they feel confident they can deliver bookings.

In this episode, we talk all about digital marketing tips for tour operators. At Arival Orlando. Digital Marketing expert Jaden Cymaluk of IWerx Connect sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley. Jaden generously shares digital marketing tips for tour operators including how tourpreneurs should vet a digital marketing agency, why it is always important to work with a marketing company that understands the tour industry and why a one-off Facebook post is not going to be effective. And Much More!

Carrie Burns is a movie buff who built a tour operator business around films. She sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley and explained how Atlanta Movie Tours started, how they market their movie tours, some of the challenges they face and much more. Carries generously shares advice on how to get started creating your own movie tours in your city.

Mina Okpi is a tour operator on a mission. She sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley and explained why she feels the outdoors industry is not marketing to people of color and what her tour business is doing about it. 'I noticed that a lot of people of color and black people weren't outdoors and taking advantage of the healing that I thought nature was able to bring to people. And that really made me sad in a way. And so I wanted to change that and I wanted to bring that outdoors and the healing and that feeling and community to communities of color.'

Shawn Teasley sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and shared three social media tips for tour operators.I was excited to chat with Shawn, as she is a social media expert with vast experience of working within the tours and hospitality industry. She is also very generous with her time and knowledge because she is passionate about social media and tours. In this quick chat, I asked Shawn to share with us her top three social media tips for tour operators. Shawn has kindly agreed to come back on the Tourpreneur Podcast on a future episode to answer more of your social media questions and to give us more social media tips for tour operators because 10 minutes is not enough time to learn from such an experienced social media strategist.

Nicole Will sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and shared why she decided to start her own tour business having worked as a tour guide for many years. We also discuss some of the challenges she has faced since launching her Asheville Wellness tours business which includes working with 50+ partners. Nicole also reveals why she picked Xola as her booking software partner and we learn more about her marketing and OTA strategy.

Miranda Peterson sat down with Tourpreneur Podcast Host Shane Whaley and told us how she gave up her corporate job, went on sabbatical around the world and came home to build a yoga tours business in Asheville.Miranda walks us through how she tested her idea to see if there was a demand for yoga tours in Asheville. We also discuss some of the challenges she has faced since launching her yoga tours business including why she moved from FareHarbor to Peek and we learn more about her marketing and OTA strategy.