Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

No aspect of the travel industry is facing more challenges and change than tour operating. New technology and shifting traveler demands are compelling tour companies to change what they offer and how they offer it. This session brings leading operators from across the region to have their say on the big challenges and trends shaping their decisions today and tomorrow.

San Francisco tour founder Erik Hormann started with one Volkswagen bus and built a thriving vintage van tour business. After 5 years, he sold it to new owners, bringing the business full circle. This is his story and it is packed with lessons and advice for tour operators.

Representing some $150 billion in spend from nearly 200 million travelers across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and beyond, the Muslim traveler marketplace is large and rapidly growing. But the needs and expectations of the segment are distinct. This session will walk through the essentials

From search and shop to serving and booking, the global search giant has big plans for the in-destination industry. In this talk, Google’s head of travel partnerships for APAC gives the Google view on The Best Part of Travel, and what that means for operators of tours, activities and attractions.

After working for large tours in NYC, Jeremy knew he wanted to offer something others didn’t. His ideal tour concept was one that was customized, with fewer guests and a more personalized experience. With the ability and first-hand knowledge to take visitors to see other beautiful and culturally rich sites of New York most tours don’t cover, Jeremy knew he could do it. Confident his idea was solid, he set out to learn all he could about how to get a tour successfully launched in an already heavily saturated market. Custom NYC Tours was born. This is his story.

Unless somehow Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Australian travelers all started traveling, behaving and spending the exact same way, it’s clear there’s no single Asian market. This essential roundtable assembles leading online travel agencies (OTAs) of tours, activities and attractions to discuss the diverse trends shaping varied travel markets and traveler segments from across the region.

It’s one of the fastest growing travel markets and India’s travelers are hungry for tour and activity experiences across Asia. This research presentation walks through the essentials of the Indian market, and explores how it’s growing, the unique values of Indian travelers and what operators need to know to win them over.

Anula Galewska, is a Tourpreneur, and a sustainable tourism expert. She helps small and big tourism businesses grow by improving their sustainability operations and marketing. Over the last decade, she has audited tour operators and hotels for sustainable tourism, so she's a real expert in this space. I wanted to talk to Anula Galewska because sustainable tourism means different things to different people. We all want to do more for the environment. We all want to do more for our local economy. We all want to build a sustainable tour business. We are all trying to make a profit, we're working hard to make a living. How can we make profits in our tour business whilst doing good? So I figured it would be good to talk to Anula about how she defines sustainable tourism and to give us some takeaways of how we can build a sustainable tour business. She has also recently launched a course. Sustainable Tourism Made Easy, it goes live on October 3, which is a simple step by step system to accelerate our tour business through sustainability. I ask her more about the course, who it is designed for and what it entails. Tourpreneur is NOT affiliated with the course but we do highly recommend Anula's work and rate her expertise.

“Local Experiences” are the latest buzzword, but what are they really? What does local authenticity really mean? And how do we infuse it into a traveler experience? Isn’t a tour or an activity a local experience? Here, Hong Kong-based culinary entrepreneur Cecilia Leung shares her insights on creating authentic local experiences through food, and how you can too.

From WeChat and Go-Jek to Grab, LINE, Meituan and more, Asia’s rising Super Apps are just about everywhere. Theyare offering pretty much everything and are challenging every sector of both online and offline commerce. How will they change the way your customers plan and book things to do? Walking us through the state of Super Apps and what they mean to creators and sellers of tours, activities and attractions is one of the region’s long-standing experts in digital travel, Brett Henry.