Tips for Tour Operators

About The Podcast Listen to all episodes at http://www.outdooradventuremarketing.com/tipsfortouroperators Tips for Tour Operators brings real-life stories and secrets from leading booking engines, agencies, tour owners, guides, marketers, and consultants with years of experience in the outdoor tourism industry. Each interview gives actionable advice and leading strategies to help tours increase bookings and grow their businesses. We believe in the power of sharing our collective passion and learning from other operators' trials and tribulations in order to grow our tours together. About Outdoor Adventure Marketing http://www.OutdoorAdventureMarketing.com http://www.facebook.com/outdooradventuremarketing http://www.instagram.com/outdooradventuremarketing Outdoor Adventure Marketing is a digital marketing & lead generation agency focused exclusively on outdoor tours and activities. Our marketing process was built on nearly a decade of industry experience and has been tailored to outdoor activities. Our team of professionals is located in Phoenix, AZ where we maximize and leverage the perfect blend of search marketing, retargeting, and social marketing that continually generates low-cost leads.

Social media is an incredible way to strengthen your brand and to connect with an audience. In the beginning, you may start posting to see little impact. Over time you may even get discouraged and only keep it up because you feel you have to. Oskar Bruening, co-founder of Peek, shares his insights on how to build an effective strategy for truly connecting with your target customers through social media. To learn more about Peek Pro, visit: https://www.peek.com/pro/ About The...

It’s a common tale, tour operators are slammed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but hear crickets the rest of the week. Many operators try to increase social media and advertising presence to up those days, but Delamon Rego from Tomis has a different idea. He joins us live at Arival to share his surefire tips to increase bookings on the weekdays through old school methods but combining new school tools from Tomis. Read more at https://tomis.tech/ About The Podcast Listen to all episodes at ...

We as humans are naturally drawn to stories. We get to know the characters and their journey and want to see what is next. Storytelling in business is a powerful way to begin engaging guests in your marketing and then deepening their connection to your passion while on a tour. Akila McConnell executes this perfectly while intertwining historical tales and figures into her food tour. The results? Huge numbers of repeat customers and wildfire praise online. About The Podcast Listen to...

Every tour wants to show at the top of Google’s pages but few know how the search engine works. Hot of the heels of his Arival Workshop, Casey Emmanuel sits down with us to share his in-depth knowledge on how tours and activities can raise their rankings on both Google Search and Google Maps About The Podcast Listen to all episodes at http://www.outdooradventuremarketing.com/tipsfortouroperators Tips for Tour Operators brings real-life stories and secrets from leading booking engines,...

Tour operators may all start their tours through different avenues, but one this is common, they all need to plan for an exit. Longtime tour operator and business success “Tourism Tim” Warren walks through the process of what it means to “exit” your tour business either through retirement, sale, or heaven forbid, an untimely death. Eventually, every owner stops owning his or her business. Having an exit plan gives you power & control and options for your future and can even help make you...

The way customers book online has changed drastically over the past few years. The advent of mobile devices has forced tour operators to relearn how people book their in-destination activities. Through an extensive study on mobile device usage, Angela Heald and crew discovered incredible insight on how travelers are researching and booking tours online today. About Checkfront Checkfront is one of the premier booking and reservation systems available today. Their system makes it easy to...

Alex Bainbridge has always been on the forefront of technology in the tourism space. As a computer engineer by education, he started the first online booking engine with TourCMS and now he is on the forefront of autonomous vehicle tours with his new venture Autoura. Alex discusses the timeline of self-driving cars and how they might soon replace drivers on vehicle tours becoming the next big disruption in tours & activities. About Autoura Autoura is on the leading edge of autonomous...

On the Tips for Tour Operators podcast, guests often provide tactic marketing and business advice. Laurel Darren called me with a different perspective. Her tour has grown, not because of a fancy, new strategy, but because of an old one: Gratitude. She shares how she’s learned to be grateful and give thanks whenever possible. She’s trained her guides to do the same and her business has seen huge growth because of it. About Wild Bunch Desert Guides Wild Bunch Desert Guides was born in the...

Video is one of the most powerful tools we have today. It also is one of the hardest things to get started for your tour. Chris Torres, owner of Tourism Marketing Agency, shares his top tips to get started in using video, what should be included in the video, and how to use it to increase your bookings with video marketing. Visit Chris’ company at http://tourismmarketing.agency About The Podcast Listen to all episodes at http://www.outdooradventuremarketing.com/tipsfortouroperators Tips...

Getting More Direct Bookings (For More Profit) - Stephen Joyce - Rezgo Online Travel Agencies have given tour operators and suppliers an amazing platform to bring awareness to tours. However, the OTAs have their drawbacks too. Stephen Joyce, CEO of Rezgo, shares his years of industry knowledge and why tours should focus on getting more direct bookings first and bookings from OTAs second. He also gives insight into what’s coming in the future of Rezgo. About The Podcast Listen to all...

Josh Oakes created a tour that grew to a multi-million dollar operation in Melbourne. After 10 years, he sold his business to focus on his family and his true passion, The Sunshine Tribe, a business that helps other tours reach their business and lifestyle goals. In this episode, Josh shares a few highlights from his tour growth blueprint, “15 Steps to Building a 7-Figure Tour Company”. You can download the full guide at https://thesunshinetribe.com/ About The Sunshine Tribe About The...

Matthew Newton is the premier expert when it comes to tour and activity websites. He founded Tourism Tiger and is now the director of marketing for the booking engine Peek Pro. He is sharing his top tips that a tour can make right away that will increase bookings by over 40%. These are proven tactics that have been tested by Tourism Tiger and Peek Pro. If you want more business directly, write these tips down! About The Podcast Listen to all episodes at ...

JJ Briles from Stellar Adventures wanted to work with a large destination management company but his limited capacity couldn't support their needs. With a bit of smoke and mirrors, he figured out a way to take large numbers of guests out on his tour without having to risk buying new vehicles. Because of the large revenue, he was able to grow his fleet of off-road vehicles, Hummers and ATVs and is now one of the largest off-road tours in the country. Listen now to hear how he did it. Check...

Amanda & Stephanie were thrust into ownership of Hot Air Expeditions after the unexpected loss of their mother. The twenty-something duo managed to keep the operation running due to some business savvy and insightful moves. Their operational skills and quick thinking also helped them see through a bout of bad press that could have destroyed any regular tour, but they shined through without any business loss. About The Podcast Tips for Tour Operators brings real-life stories and secrets...

If you've ever wondered how to let go of your phone lines, check out this week's episode with Brent Ramirez of The Booking Ninja. He breaks down customer service into multiple elements so you can identify areas for improvement and so you can more effectively train your employees or outsource to a team. About The Booking Ninja The Booking Ninja offers personalized back-office support exclusively for tour and activity businesses. The Booking Ninja team handles sales calls, customer...

Douglas Quinby is the former Senior Vice President of Phocuswright and the co-founder of Arival, the conference for in-destination tours and activities. Douglas talks big picture about a number of topics including how to keep your tour authentic when working on an international level, how Airbnb is moving into experiences, how technology is bringing demand-based pricing to tours.

Kelsey Tonner (Owner, Be a Better Guide Project) the premier training resource on creating memorable experiences for tour operators and guides. He's led tours in over 30 different countries and creates custom training content for tour guides all over the world. Kelsey addresses the importance of ratings on Google and TripAdvisor and what the impact of those ratings can me. He shares 5 steps to creating a steady stream of 5-star reviews on the largest booking sites online. Visit the Be A...

Ingrid Edstrom is the CEO of Polymath, an accounting firm specializing in tours and activities. She has been recognized as one of the accounting profession’s Top 40 Under 40 and as one of the Most Powerful Women in Accounting. Her specialization in the tourism industry gives her clients the advantage of understanding the unique financial challenges tours face. Include how to integrate with booking engines to discover which tours are most profitable and handling off-season finance. Learn...

Todd Kersey (Founder & CEO, Florida Fishing Network) spent years in the corporate world and wanted a change. After starting a small fishing tour, he began applying knowledge from the corporate world to his tour with massive results. He grew his single tour to a huge network of over 320 tours. Florida Fishing Network is one of the largest fishing tour companies in the US. His network of boats and captains expands into the online world for an incredible digital footprint that brings constant...