In this quick episode, Tourpreneur partners Peter Syme and Chris Torres dive into the latest buzz around Airbnb's third attempt to amplify their experiences offering.

Despite previous failures, Airbnb is pushing hard again, proclaiming that experiences represent a massive market opportunity. But can they succeed this time? Peter and Chris weigh in on the challenges Airbnb faces, from curating high-quality experiences to ensuring sustainable pricing for operators.

They discuss the potential pitfalls of relying on non-professional hosts and the importance of integrating API connectivity for seamless bookings. Will Airbnb's powerful brand and vast resources finally turn the tide? Tune in as our hosts dissect the prospects of Airbnb becoming a major player in the experiences sector and share insights on what needs to change for this ambitious venture to thrive.

For more, visit tourpreneur.com

Mitch Bach interviews three tour guides and operators who have become extremely popular on TikTok:

• Megan Marod (@themegandaily)
• David Harry (@the_london_spy)
• John O'Sullivan (@oneminutetours)

These guides have all harnessed the power of TikTok in different ways that suits their personality, goals, and markets. But they have one thing in common: they say the key to success is showing up authentically.

In this episode they tell their story and share their tips and strategies on a variety of topics:

• What videos of theirs had viral success
• How to build authenticity and develop your own unique style
• Batch creation and other tips to streamline the creation process
• How to engage with your audience (and handle negative comments)
• Their experience with the Creator Fund and its monetization potential
• Whether and how to develop brand partnerships
• Collaborating with content creators
• Should you show up as a brand or an individual?
• How they measure success on the platform

If you're interested in working with content creators, Tourpreneur has a new short course from an experienced creator on how to pitch and negotiate with creators, and criteria to look for when deciding who to partner with. Available to anyone with a Professional Membership.

Show notes & more on tourpreneur.com!

Mitch Bach talks with Brian Jewell, the Vice President and Executive Editor of Group Travel Leader, a media company representing tens of thousands of tour operators, travel agents, trip planners, many of whom have been in business for decades. Brian provides endless free resources for his community of small travel provider, and has learned countless lessons from decades in the industry.

There's a whole community of small, outbound multi-day tour operators who have been in business since the years and decades after WWII, since the beginning of the explosive growth of mass tourism. Those operators are at the ends of their careers, and the companies they've built offer a huge opportunity for acquisition, and also have learned lessons about finding niche markets and solidifying their business through personal relationships.

• Show notes
• Visit Group Travel Leader
• Brian on LinkedIn

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.

Ryan O'Grady, the founder of Fotaflo joins us today to share how we can increase tour bookings and reviews with guest photos, which he calls 'memory marketing.'

Ryan explains how tour businesses can leverage photo memories to market and create advocates for their business. He outlines the benefits of offering photo memories of the tour as a free value-add rather than a paid service.

Ryan also underscores how strategically sending previous clients photos of their experiences can maintain a connection between the brand, its customers, and the wider market.

Today's guest shares with us some of her lessons from 30 years of running a tour business. We cover a lot of ground including marketing tours, dealing with journalists, websites, hiring and managing tour guides and chatbots! 

Lauren Hefferon joins us to discuss how she started, developed, and expanded the bike tour business Ciclismo Classico.

She explains the significance of Ciclismo Classico’s website for booking and why she is keen on talking directly with her customers before they book.

She shares how she made use of the Zoom culture to hold virtual events during the COVID pandemic.

Lauren also highlights the power of event marketing and offers advice for cultivating effective public relations.

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.

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.

Today we hear from 3 tour operators who attended the in-person Arival San Diego event, they share what they learned and experienced.

I was keen to hear what first-time attendees of Arival thought of the event, so today we are joined by Brian Cain of Crawl New Orleans and Jarrod Riddle of Sprit of Arizona Tours.  We also invited Heather Fortes of Sactown Bites to our tour business round table discussion. 

Arival San Diego is Heather's second Arival event, she shares how she had set up her Sacramento food tour business just a few weeks before attending Arival Orlando in 2019.

Our guests share three takeaways each and reveal what they are going to implement in their tour business as a result of attending Arival San Diego.

We also run the rule over the OTA and res tech sessions that are always a big draw at Arival but did they deliver what our tourpreneurs were looking for?

Brian Cain also disclosed more about working with Viator accelerate, he was a beta partner with the OTA's new program.

Tourpreneur and our guests commend the Arival team for putting on such an excellent event in trying circumstances.

We all hope to see you at Arival Las Vegas later this year and who knows, there is talk of a European Arival to be held this summer. 

Thank you to our guests, Brian, Heather, and Jarrod for their candor during this episode of Tourpreneur. I look forward to digging into your story and tour business journey on a later episode.

What did you think about Arival San Diego? What did you learn that you will implement in your tour business? Let us know in our Tourpreneur Facebook Group.

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.

It's January, a time for new years resolutions and goal setting.

In today's episode, Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley asked 11 activity and tour operators what one skill or competency they are focusing on to grow their business in 2022.

If you are able to help our guests with advice on where they can master that skill or competency please share your thoughts with them and others in our online community.

Shane also shares why he made the decision to attend Arival San Diego and reveals new features coming soon to Tourpreneur.

If you enjoyed today's episode please consider giving us a rating and review on your podcast app and sharing it with your peers. 

Should we be using AI Chatbots for our tour business? Listen to an extract of an interview with Evan Tipton of TOMIS who explains how Billy of Arkansas River Tours is taking advantage of AI Chatbots to generate over $60k in bookings. Billy also shares with us how AI Chatbot is helping his tour business to become more efficient.

Our guests discuss how tour operators can facilitate conversations toward understanding diverse history.

They also explore how tour operators can discuss historical issues on tours effectively and safely. They consider engaging travelers who discover an unpleasant aspect of their ancestors’ history while on a historical tour.

Or podcast guests also highlight why running tours is a distinct art form in itself and underscore how She Shapes History strives to encourage people to engage in the democratic process.

In this episode, Dan & Casey from Untethered Media join Chris to delve deep into the strategies that make your marketing click.

From the subtle art of Facebook ads that work like modern-day flyers, to the critical role of a well-designed website, we're covering all the bases.

We'll explore why it's not just about selling but building trust with potential customers and how the first impression your site makes can be the deal-breaker.

Overview

00:00 Entrepreneur call-in show with experts advising.

05:57 LinkedIn for B2B, Facebook for inspiration, Google Ads.

07:24 Embraces marketing, but could live without social media.

11:24 Ensure clear, direct messaging on website landing.

13:21 Focus on customer-centric design, not personal preference.

19:02 Repurposed Irish sheep blog for better traffic.

22:19 Overbooked venue, enjoyed parent's restaurant, shared discovery.

24:12 Assessing strategy effectiveness of client's Facebook group.

29:14 "New leader, marketing strategy, customer engagement, growth."

32:43 Working behind the scenes, adding more content.

Today on Tourpreneur we hear from three listeners who attended the TIS Seville. What did they learn? And what are they going to do differently in their businesses as a result of attending? TIS is a new one for me so here is the official blurb. 'Tourism Innovation Summit is aimed to help tourism and travel industry to face all those short and long-term challenges. Seville will host again three days of disruptive masterclasses where success stories of travel are going on stage. Digitalization and innovation will be main discussion and plenty of solutions will be presented to the tourism industry to address these challenges. An event to find the right partners to evolve their digital strategies and implement them.

A wide variety of technologies will be showcased in order to help tourism businesses become more competitive and, more importantly, restart the new ways of travel. There are many buzzwords here so we thought it would be useful to get the lowdown on this event from Three tourpreneurs who attended TIS and Arival @TIS

We have two first time guests on the show today, please welcome Filipa Loule Founder at Portuguese For a Day Tours Jon French - Regional Sales Manager, Redeam.com and let's welcome back Peter Syme, Tourpreneur, adventurer, and digital transformation expert

Evan, Billy, and Amada discuss digital marketing tips for tour operators, SEO best practices, Google Ads, and customer communications. They explore how by integrating AI chatbots, SMS chat, and live chat systems tour operators can enhance the customer communication experience. They share their advice for collaborating with marketing agencies and highlight why making your website mobile user-friendly is crucial. Evan Tipton of TOMIS also explains what Google Core Vitals are and underscores why tour operators shouldn’t shortchange themselves on website hosting.

Social media expert, Social Tonic's Shawn Teasley is joined by tourism  marketing expert Chris Torres along with tour operators Alan, and Amber to discuss the fine details of Facebook marketing for tour operators. They discuss the top three things tour operators should know before working with marketing agencies and demystify the secrets behind making impactful Facebook ads for tour operators. They highlight the importance of keeping social media profiles active—especially during the pandemic. They also consider how tour operators should spend their advertising money beyond Facebook ads and underscore the role of communication in collaborating with tour marketing agencies.

In this episode of the Tour Operator Start-Up Series, Sita, Ripley, and Danielle Desir discuss how to build a podcast to expand your brand.

They break down the basics of creating a podcast and how Tour Operators can use it to generate passive income.

They brainstorm how Sita and Ripley can go back to their brand’s roots to develop podcast content aligned with their company’s mission and values.

They also consider the different characteristics that make a great podcast and the importance of cultivating a community around content.

In part 5 of our blogging for tour operators guide, tourism marketing expert Dorene Wharton joins us to share her secrets to writing successful SEO-friendly blog posts.

She explains why Google keeps changing its algorithms. She discusses how tour operators can successfully navigate Google’s E-A-T guidelines and shares her best practices for keyword researching.

She offers advice for writing the best titles for blog posts and her favorite SEO tools.

Check out Dorene's SEO for tour operators Checklist

Dorene also highlights how bloggers can leverage external and internal links to get higher page rankings and underscores the importance of building trust and credibility in blog posts.

Overview

00:00 New marketing agency series featuring tour operators.

03:24 SEO and blogging are a balancing act.

09:33 Google provides comprehensive writing guidelines and resources.

12:24 Use multiple keywords to improve ranking on Google.

15:42 Domain authority measures likelihood of ranking on keywords.

16:42 Struggle with SEO, looking to improve.

21:26 SEMrush is robust but expensive; Keysearch recommended.

23:32 Switched from Yoast to Rank Math for speed.

27:19 Optimize website pictures for better SEO.

32:13 Choosing title: SEO vs. copywriting dilemma explained.

33:39 Steps for SEO: brainstorm titles, research, use numbers.

36:11 Write important articles for your business, despite SEO.

42:09 SEO blog checklist to guide through internal linking.

42:50 Internal linking boosts on-site SEO, website navigation.

47:46 Doreen shares SEO tips for improving ROI.

Trish Higgins bought Cap’n Fish’s cruises in idyllic Boothbay Harbor, Maine: known for its puffins, whale-watching, and picturesque lighthouses. So what could go wrong? For starters, she signed the docs for her new tour business just days before the COVID-19 epidemic shut down most of the country, adding a totally new and unforeseen obstacle to tour operations, planning, and staff communication. But needless to say, Trish was determined to make the best of it and help the team at Cap’n Fish - a family-run business that had been around since the 1930’s - to reach their full potential. And we’re all about tackling challenges head first, and sharing those experiences when we live to tell the tale. So if you’re curious how Trish managed to help Cap’n Fish thrive, even during a pandemic, here are some of her key takeaways. She shared some first-hand tips for anyone who might consider purchasing (or selling) a tour business of their own.

In this episode of the Tour Operator Start-Up Series, Sita, Ripley, and Nancy discuss how She Shapes History Tours can leverage social media as marketing tools to attract attention. They explore how Sita and Ripley can use their values and advocacy for social media to create content that will engage their demographic audience. They discuss different ways to brainstorm for social media content and how they can manage time between running digital marketing and the other aspects of She Shapes History. Sita and Ripley also describe what they learned from the success of their launch and share the next steps they plan to take for She Shapes History.

How to start a tour company - our guests Sita and Ripley are back on the Tourpreneur Podcast to share their experience leading their first tour and the feedback, insights, and lessons they learned from it. They describe how the test tour did not go as smoothly as they had envisioned it and discuss one important aspect they need to include in their next test tours. They explain the most surprising comment they received after getting feedback. They also highlight the importance of long-term strategic planning in business and underscore what it means to be a “COVID-friendly” business.

Tour Operator Tom Barclay Matchett reveals how he went about growing a bespoke private tour business and provides his insight into the creative side of engaging business and guests through storytelling.

He walks us through the genesis of The London Storyteller tour business and how he designs his different bespoke tours, with themes ranging from 007 to Winston Churchill.

He explains how his years of working in different environments came together to inform his business operations.

Tom also shares the three major lessons/value bombs he learned about growing a tour business and underscores the value of trusting your creative instinct.

In part 4 of our blogging for tour operators guide, marketing expert Dorene Wharton returns to share her favorite copywriting tips for tour operator bloggers.

Mitch Bach talks with Corey William Schneider, founder of the New York Adventure Club, about his unique approach to building a tour business focused on delivering unique, special-access experiences to primarily a crowd of locals.

From those experiences, which grew out of his personal desire to explore more of his home of New York City with other likeminded friends, he pivoted during Covid towards a wide variety of virtual tours.

Today the Adventure Club still does both. Corey's story can help operators everywhere understand how to develop product lines aimed at locals, and ancillary high-profit revenues through virtual tours at scale.

Host Shane Whaley is joined by Fat Tire Tours and bike tour business owner Emilie to discuss Fat Tire Tours’ initiative to create a community and booking platform for bike tour operators worldwide. Our guests reveal what inspired the company to start the project and share what they learned about the bike tour industry during COVID-19. They highlight Fat Tire Tours’ strategies for helping bike tour operators grow within the community. They describe the company’s history and explain how they plan to market bike tours globally. They also discuss the core pillars of their project and underscore the importance of collaboration over competition. Our guests are grilled by Bike Tour Operator and regular contributor to Tourpreneur., Emilie Pelletier.

The Tour Operator Start-Up is back. We take you behind the scenes of a tour business start up - each month we check in with She Shapes History hosted by Nikki Padilla Rivera.

Each month you can join your host, tourism expert Nikki Padilla Rivera as we explore how Sita and Ripley went from the world of academia to building their own tourism company in Canberra, Australia.

They share why they chose to focus on female stories and the importance of exploring the diverse histories that are often not taught in school.

They discuss their partnership, the benefits of working as a team and the tools they are using to build their company. They also outline their steps for marketing and fine-tuning their tours as they approach their launch date.

The Tourpreneur Tour Operator Podcast host Shane Whaley announces an upcoming new line up and features for Tourpreneur listeners. Tourpreneur will be back in July. 

John Coupland joins me today to share how he leveraged his previous experiences as an entrepreneur when starting his tour company and the challenges he faced as a new tour operator. We discuss how he designed his most popular guided tour, The Crown Film Locations & Royal Secrets Tour. John shares why it’s critical for tour operators to have the ability to ‘read’ their guest’s body language and how it helps you deliver outstanding tour experiences. John also reveals the three key lessons he has learned about building a successful tour operation, creating exceptional experiences, and achieving outstanding customer reviews.

In part 3 of our blogging for tour operators guide, marketing expert Dorene Wharton returns to discuss the benefits of repurposing your content into fresh, new pieces for different platforms. We discuss what it means to repurpose content and the benefits of breathing new life into your existing content. Dorene shares her tips on breaking up your content into multiple pieces for different mediums and how thinking about ways to repurpose your content while you’re creating it can help save time and inspire new ideas. We discuss the pros and cons of releasing short videos versus long ones and how breaking your longer videos into bite-sized, shorter video clips can appeal to a broader audience. We discuss the value of creating share-worthy content and tips for encouraging your audience to share your content with others. Dorene also shares tips and strategies that tour operators can use to become more efficient with repurposing your content for multiple mediums and platforms and the tools and platforms you can use to repost your content and attract new audiences.

Tourpreneur host and founder Shane Whaley shares why he has decided to join Redeam.com as VP of Sales and why this is good news for Tourpreneur listeners.

Passionate sales leader known for implementing global business development, growth, and strategies focused on driving revenue and increasing market share joins rapidly growing travel technology company

Broomfield, CO (May 3, 2021) – Redeam, the leading and only independent global connectivity stack with digitized channel management and touchless voucher redemption/reconciliation solutions for the Experiences and Things To Do industry, today announced that highly respected, long-time travel industry veteran and Tourpreneur publisher Shane Whaley will be joining the company as VP Sales. Whaley, a personal brand unto his own right, brings a deep, nearly 20-year legacy of selling digital travel solutions, for online hotel booking and online travel agency (OTA) websites, most recently with GetYourGuide before embarking on his own entrepreneurial endeavor with Tourpreneur. Whaley, known for his success building sales teams and his personalized problem-solving approach, joins Redeam to help operators grow sales and improve operational efficiencies through Redeam’s middleware SaaS solutions. Whaley will continue to nurture and publish Tourpreneur as its own independent business.

“I love what I have built with Tourpreneur, but I miss the camaraderie of a team,” said Whaley. “What I so admire about Redeam and am excited to join is the thriving culture Redeam’s CEO Melanie Meador has built. I’ve watched Redeam’s product evolution and see the kind of industry problems they’re solving. Redeam is making a real difference in the Experiences industry, and I can’t wait to contribute directly to that.”

“I honestly could not pass up an opportunity to work more directly with Shane, whose work and spirit I so admire,” said Redeam CEO Meador. “Shane understands the struggles of small and large operators alike, the fragmented nature of our industry sector, and the value Redeam’s connectivity, distribution, and improved customer experience brings. Shane is going to achieve great things here at Redeam, and we all welcome him with open arms.”

To learn more about how tour, attraction, and activity operators rely on Redeam to easily automate their businesses so that they can sell more tickets around the world, visit the Redeam website.

Today Otehlia and I dive into the world of Instagram marketing for tour operators and strategies to help grow your tour business. Otehlia offers insights into how Instagram can work for tour operators and which tools to use to maximize your reach. She shares her personal approach to Instagram and why creating an Instagram community is integral to publicizing your tour business. We discuss the unique role that Instagram can play in marketing tours and why it shouldn’t be your main point of sale application. She also shares her process of trial and error when maneuvering algorithms in Instagram and offers a few tips for getting more views.

Today, we hear the inspirational journey of one woman's determination to keep her water tour business afloat after her partner got sick and was fighting for his life. In 2019, following her partner Brent’s health challenges related to a rare genetic disease, Krystle Theunissen stepped up to run their water tour business and steer the company through challenging times. She has hit the ground running, tackling a steep learning curve to become a successful tour provider operating tours through the COVID pandemic. She shares her 3 major learnings with us.

"Over 35,000 people have been connected to Maine’s craft alcohol producers since our tours began almost 10 years ago" Don Littlefield is a legend in the brewery tour business and he shares his 3 major learnings on growing a brewery tour business with us.

Today, we take a deep dive into the work of brewery tours and how the beer tour market has changed since COVID. Don Littlefield of Maine Brews Cruise shares the essential tips he wants tourpreneurs to learn and which digital marketing strategies are most effective for his business. He reveals why the merchandise is critical and why he chose FareHarbor as his company’s preferred online booking platform. He shares how he ensures a high guest satisfaction level and the indicators that made him realize he could expand his tour offerings. Don highlights some unusual ideas he tried with his tours and why working with your competitors can be mutually beneficial. He also shares how working with an established brewery tour company can help you get started and the three craft beers he would take with him if he was stranded on a desert island.

In the second part of our Blogging for Tour Operators series, Dorene shares tips on what should tour operators blog about. Plus we discuss how tour operators can generate new ideas for content. Dorene highlights other types of content tour operators can create and why passion and conversion posts are both critical. She shares advice for blog content you can explore when you are just starting your tour business and the best keyword tools you can use to refine your posts. We explore how tour businesses can use their competitor's sites and others in their niche market to get content inspiration and how reciprocal sharing is an essential part of building your blog following. Dorene also shares how you can organize your ideas into a content strategy, how Google Analytics can help you identify what’s working on your site, and subject areas you can cover to create an engaging tour blog post.

Mitch Bach speaks with Jessica Off, founder of Guess Where Trips, an e-commerce company creating physical and digital surprise road trips for customers across Canada and the U.S.

Jessica is a serial travel entrepreneur, including work at G Adventures. In this episode, she talks about what led her to start an e-commerce product-based travel business, after looking into tour operating and multi-day trips.

This episode will give tour operators the inspiration to think about ancillary product revenue streams that can complement their in-person business, utilizing the same destination knowledge and supplier connections to offer experiences to a new customer base!

• Visit Guess Where Trips home page
• Episode show notes

We talk about:

• the design thinking behind crafting self-guided tours
• why the element of surprise is so crucial to the experience
• her experience working with content creators
• how B2C trade shows have worked out for her trying to sell her product
• why she decided to ditch multi-day surprise trips
• the importance of collecting email addresses at trade shows
• finding the right market for the trips, and why big cities don’t work
• working with local vendors to support them

On today's episode, Tourpreneur host Shane Whaley talks content for tour operators with Arival's Director of Marketing, Jessica Gregory. Arival recently announced their content for tour operators masterclass which takes place on March 24th and 25th. Jessica and Shane discuss the content masterclass program and discuss why this is not a standard event but an actual course complete with homework and follow-up learning opportunities. This Arival Master Class looks at key trends in travel content, what today’s travelers are consuming, and provides hands-on learning for content creation (websites, blogs, emails, ads, social, text, photos, videos), dissemination, and management.  Learn what to create, how to make it, where to place it, how to manage it, and how to measure whether it’s working.

This is the Story of Blue Fern Travel, the DC Tour company which tells the history of neighborhoods through food. Blue Fern Travel focuses on supporting local businesses, specifically, women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Today, Mary and Stefan share the Blue Fern Travel ethos and how they work with organizations helping those in need in the city. They share how their food tour business started and how they gained funding for their new venture. They reveal how their community reacted to their business and why it's essential to work with staff, management, and owners when securing vendors. They explain the business skills they had to learn and the methods they use to design their food tours. They discuss why they chose their online tour booking platform and how they market their tours. They also share advice for hiring people to help promote your tour business and what tourpreneurs can do to help their communities.

In today's episode of the Travel Industry Mavericks, Peter Syme and Christian Watts discuss Chris Newlands' unique business model and the journey that led to the creation of spelfie.com. We discuss how COVID has changed Chris’s business landscape and the challenges of bringing brands, events, and partners together. We discuss how Spelfie works, the unique benefits brands get when partnering with them at events, and how Spelfie can work for destination cities and in-destination supply partners. Chris highlights the first socially distanced event for Spelfie and how real-time opportunities can evolve the business's offering. We also discuss how satellite technology is evolving, both in terms of quality and capacity, the many possible new avenues it will give travel partners, and what Spelfie will be doing in the future.

Is Clubhouse for Tour Operators and Tour Guides? Everyone is talking about it, but not many can categorize it. The clubhouse is the new social platform that is a part conference call and part house party. Intrigued by Clubhouse then today you can be a fly on the wall as I record an actual session for you. Today, I’m moderating a Clubhouse session called ‘Clubhouse For Operators’ with three Clubhouse regulars, Christian ‘Clubhouse’ Watts, Mitch Bach, and Nikki Padilla Rivera.In today's podcast-meets-Clubhouse session, we unpack what Clubhouse has to offer to the travel industry and discover Christian’s, Mitch’s, and Nikki’s thoughts about the new kid on the Social Block. We discuss what they find alluring about the platform and why some love it. We discuss Clubhouse etiquette tips, how a session works,  and what makes it different from the now ubiquitous Zoom meeting. We also consider what the value of Clubhouse will be once the exclusive novelty aspect has worn off and how it will continue to attract high industry value speakers.

Much has been written about self-guided tours for tour operators. Is it buzz? Is it hype? Are tour operators making serious revenue out of this or is self-guided yet another shiny object to tempt tour operators away from working on tour business fundamentals? I'm intrigued and I'm not ashamed to say this is a part of our industry that I don't really know much about. I experienced a self-guided tour, an audio tour several years ago in London and thoroughly enjoyed it. But I recognize that since 2018, a lot has changed with technology. And a lot of the functionality has advanced somewhat since then. So it's in that spirit that I've invited onto. today's show Alex Govoreanu the co-founder and CEO at Questo. His company offer self guided city exploration games for travelers and locals. Questo has just raised one and a half million dollars in series A fundraising. However, I didn't just want to have a chat with Alex about self-guided tours for tour operators. When I'm interviewing a guest for the show, I want to know what's in it for you, the tour operator. . So I invited onto the show, a gentleman I affectionately call Mr. Episode 8. Alan Rust! Alan is the Chief Experience Officer at America Tour Company. Alan is shopping around for a partner with self-guided technology for tours. So I thought, you know what, let's host a genuine, authentic conversation on the podcast. So in today's show, we can all learn a little bit more about what Questo offers, how Alex sees the world of self-guided tours and what questions does Alan, the tour operator has when he is looking for a partner in which to sell self-guided apps. And how does he feel Questo stacks up? Alan has spoken to quite a few self-guided providers out there, we will publish a follow up episode with Alan in a few weeks time to hear how he is getting on.shane

Dorene Wharton of TravelLife Media returns to Tourpreneur today to share ideas and tips on blogging for tour operators. In part 1 of our blogging strategy for tour operators, she shares the foundational elements of creating interesting and compelling blog content. We also discuss why it’s crucial to overcome your fears and feelings of impostor syndrome when it comes to blogging. We discuss the questions you should ask yourself before starting a blog and why goal-setting and understanding your ‘why’ for your blog are critical for your success. We explain how you can use your blog posts as a jumping-off point for other marketing strategies like social media and content marketing. We discuss why it’s essential to identify your target audience and the value of discipline and consistency in producing your content. We also discuss what you should consider when troubleshooting low-performing blog posts, the importance of mentally preparing yourself for feedback and criticism from your readers, and the pros and cons of hiring a ghostwriter to write your blog content.

Today Peek's CEO Ruzwana Bashir and CTO Oskar Bruening join the Travel Mavericks to discuss their forecasts for the season ahead. We discuss how you can enhance and increase your profitability and what impact the booking system you choose will have on them. Oskar explains why, although there are new small booking systems that might meet your specific needs, the big systems should also be considered due to their time in usage and what user feedback has meant in improving those systems. Ruzwana considers the problems small operators might have with scaling while coping with the uncertain future COVID-19 has presented to the industry and what she predicts will happen in the industry regarding re-platforming and other solutions to generate revenue and increase profitability. We also discuss the new virtual experiences corporates and the wider audience are now looking for and what their place in the market might be once we get to the other side of the pandemic.

Many of you have written in asking me why I no longer produce a What I Learned This Week episode on Tourpreneur. In this short episode, I reveal what I learned in 2020 and how I am trying to be laser-focused in 2021 so I can deliver you even better content. Shane is not the only one trying to be more focused, he is in good company with Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky calling 2021 a year of focus. Also in this audio journal, I share more about how I organize my working week as a content creator and how I stay productive despite all the distractions. A big shout out to Cal Newport's book 'Deep Work.' I also share why I turned down invites to Clubhouse and my response to those who ask me what I think about the new Arival Insider Pro subscription plan. I also give you a sneak preview of a new feature on Tourpreneur that we will be piloting shortly. Bridgerton anyone?

Peter Syme joins me today to discuss the evolving travel industry and how activity and tour businesses can survive and find success. He shares his military experiences and the lessons he’s learned from his military career. We discuss why continued education is vital and personal, and how you can research courses, and who is delivering them to ensure your time and money are spent well. Peter Syme shares what business actions to prioritize, including focusing on surviving first and adapting to provide the most effective online and offline experiences. He highlights how businesses that focus on the most difficult things and recognize that the customer is in control are the ones that succeed. He also highlights why you need to change your guest journey for the post-COVID world, the importance of understanding the interdependencies between industries, and that partnerships and outsourcing may be needed for business growth.

Oliver CEO of Ventrata, Edwin Swift IV of Historic Tours of America, and tour operator Emilie join me today to discuss and learn more about how the Ventrata booking platform and ticketing systems work. We discuss how Ventrata differs from other Rez Tech companies and why Edwin and Historic Tours of America chose to use Ventrata. Emilie quizzes Ventrata about the reporting, customization, campaigns, waivers, and translation options offered by Ventrata. We also discuss why 2021 is an excellent time to change booking platforms and why Ventrata has become popular with hop-on/hop-off tour companies.

In this follow-up episode, our hosts Chris Torres, Mitch Bach, and Peter Syme delve into the increasing use of AI in the travel industry, emphasizing its impact on creating new products and services. They discuss the strategic challenges of AI adoption and the potential for customized experiences at scale, while also stressing the importance of maintaining a human touch in the digital age.

The hosts raise concerns about the commercialization of the travel industry and the potential negative impacts on destinations, while also providing valuable insights on business acquisitions, the future of travel, and targeting niche market segments such as cruise ship passengers. Throughout the episode, they emphasize the value of creating unique and engaging experiences, and provide actionable advice for operators looking to enhance their businesses. Plus, they share information about free resources and coaching opportunities to help operators take their businesses to the next level. Tune in for practical advice, expert insights, and thought-provoking discussions on navigating the ever-evolving landscape of the travel industry.

Overview

00:00 Pine discusses mass customization and AI opportunities.

05:43 Consider hotels for city stays to personalize experiences.

10:16 Embrace failure as part of creative process.

13:41 Marketing hidden gems creates its own challenges.

17:14 AI travel planner focuses on commercial experiences.

21:54 Consider demographics, repeat customers, marketing strategy questions.

24:45 Established business with cash flow & opportunities.

28:52 Old businesses face opportunity in rejuvenation and acquisition.

30:12 Boomers retiring and impacting business market.

34:59 Creating useful, unique content is key.

40:01 Personalized technology offers customized travel experiences.

43:35 Use technology to create emotional, surprising experiences.

47:26 Single operators may struggle to secure contracts.

49:53 Cruises cater to least adventurous travelers' needs.

54:17 Tailored marketing crucial for diverse cruise clientele.

56:03 "Category Pirates" book encourages unique business strategies.

58:48 Online audiences remain undervalued despite digital presence.

The brand new Travel Industry Mavericks series kicks off with a discussion about the challenges facing OTAs. Peter Syme and Christian Watts join me today to discuss what is happening in the tourism industry and share their predictions for the future. We also discuss why we decided to create the Travel Industry Mavericks round table series on the Tourpreneur Podcast.

Patrick joins me today to share how content plays a crucial role in your tour business. We discuss whether you should build your business foundations before starting a podcast and reveal the strategies that will attract media attention. Patrick shares the pros and cons of Instagram Reels and Amazon Explore and how to attract an audience from Facebook. Patrick also shares how BE NY adjusted to the events of 2020.

RocketRez's Joe Robinson and Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours' Kim Wark join us today to share the story of RocketRez and describe what the RocketRez experience is like from the tour and attraction’s operator point of view. Joe reveals the benefits of using an all-in-one booking, inventory, and sales solution. He highlights the onboarding experience for clients and shares how the pricing model works. Kim discusses the platform's customization options and reveals what it is like to update rates, schedules, and locations. We also discuss the tour and attraction websites where you can see the RocketRez services and solutions at work.