Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

Robert sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares more with us about how Bindlestiff Tours create truly immersive experiences on their multi-day tours. We also talk about the major differences selling multi-day tours online, how the booking window is different and the challenge of selling multi-day tours online because of the higher price point. I also ask Robert how he reckons the tours, activities and experiences industry has changed over the years. Robert Graff speaks at many trade conferences and events, I have been lucky to see him on stage several times. He is an industry professional, a travel industry veteran that I have admired from afar, so I was delighted to spend some time with Robert, though ten minutes did not do us justice. I hope he is open to coming back on the show, maybe on one of our future round tables to discuss the state of the tours and activities industry because he has so much experience and knowledge to share with us.

TourismTiger's Matt Newton is one of the most experienced and knowledgable people I know when it comes to marketing tours and in today's episode, he shares some top website tips for tour operators. His book Sell More Tours (2015) is crammed with online marketing and web site tips for Tour Operators, it was one of the first books I read when I made the transition from hotels to the tour industry. I was delighted to finally meet Matt at Arival in Orlando and honored that he agreed to sit down for a quick chat to share his knowledge and marketing tips for tour operators.

Georgette Blau is the founder of On Location Tours offering TV and Movie Tours in NYC. From Sex in the City tours to The Sopranos Tours and now even Superhero tours. Georgette sat down with Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley, and shares with us how she got started offering TV and movie tours in NYC. Georgette's story is inspirational.

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.'