Starting a tour business is hard work. Like any other business, there are lots of pieces that need to come together before you find success. And with so many resources out there it can be hard to know where to begin. This post can be used as a blueprint as you go through the stages up until, and after, your first tour. It will help you focus on the tasks that will make the most impact.
Operating your own tour company can be a rewarding and profitable experience. But will take hard work, commitment, and a lot of passion. So are you ready?
The first step to building a tour business is to know what you're passionate about. This may sound corny but starting a business takes a lot of energy. On top of that tours are very repetitive. If you aren't passionate, you're going to get sick of telling the same stories three times a day. And your guest will notice. There's nothing worse than listening to a guide that sounds bored. Take some time to figure out what's going to excite you to wake up and share with others every morning.
How to turn your passion into a tour business.
Once you have your passion in mind, it's time to take a look at your city. Is it a popular tourist destination? What are the trends? Is there anything that's not being explored? While passion is key, it's equally important that there's an opportunity. Passion without opportunity is just a hobby. Check in with your local tourism board to see if they have any market research reports that outline the opportunities and challenges in the industry.
Now that you have an idea of the tour niche you're going to operate in, you need to map out what your ideal customer looks like. Think about the types of people that will be attracted to your tour. Are they outdoorsy? Do they love food? Will they want to talk to locals? What's going to excite them? Who your customer is will determine a lot of the decisions you make later. So take the time to get to know this person now.
Having found your tour idea and evaluated the market in the previous section, you're almost ready to register your business. But first, you'll need to research your competition, so you know what you're up against. What are they doing well? Where are their gaps? Find ways to differentiate and stand out.
With your research complete, now is a good time to consider your options for registering your business. Go to your local tourism board and find out the requirements for starting a tour company in your area. Here are some of the legalities you might have to go through.
The first thing you need to do is name your business. Your name will be used in all of your documentation. Make sure your name is both memorable and descriptive. And more importantly these days— if the domain is available. If your name-checks all the boxes, go to your local Registrar of Companies to get it approved and then purchase your domain.
Don't forget to ask yourself this question before you name your tour.
Now that you have a name you're ready to make things official by registering your business. There are different options for how you register— sole proprietorship, partnerships, corporations. Evaluate the pros and cons of each before you make your decision.
Once you've registered your business, you'll need to get a local business license. Check in with your local municipality to do this. You might need to obtain additional permits and licensing based on where you are operating and if you have any vehicles.
If you are guiding, you might need to complete a course to become a licensed tourist guide. This allows you to take tourists around a designated geographical area. To find out if you need to register as a guide, check in with your local tourism board.
Now that you have a business license the next things you'll want to do is open a corporate bank account. This will help you keep track of all your expenses and revenue and make accounting a lot easier. Speaking of accounting, you might want to consider hiring an accountant or signing up for accounting software.
Protect your business, and yourself, by getting liability insurance. This ensures that your company cannot be held accountable for risks. Your insurance company can guide you on your coverage needs. Some commonly required in the tourism industry are Commercial General Liability (CGL), Property Insurance, and Accounts Receivable Insurance.
With all the legalities taken care of, it's time to write your business plan. A business plan is a document that holds all of your ideas. It's your roadmap that helps you determine how you'll move forward. Include your company description, market analysis, and partnership opportunities. Create a marketing plan, an operations plan, and a list of your products and services. Make financial projections and be sure you account for seasonality. It's okay if you don't have all the answers right away but it's good to know what to focus on as you grow.
With your business plan in hand, it's time to lock down your unique selling proposition. This explains what makes your tour better than the competition. It's the benefit that travelers can only get by attending your tour. You should be able to define this in one sentence.
Now that you've evaluated your market and determined the value of your tour it's time to choose what you will charge. While it's important to consider your operating costs and market value, the main thing you need to figure out is what customers are willing to pay. Keep in mind seasonality, as well as prices for children and groups. And remember that you can always test until you find the perfect number.
Now comes the fun part—it's time to create a compelling story for your tour. Make sure it has a definite beginning, middle, and end. Find themes that you can carry through the entire experience. A clear narrative makes your tour more memorable. The goal is to have your guests telling their friends all the neat things they learned in the weeks that follow.
Once you've created a story for your tour, it's time to design your brand around it. The first step is to create a logo. Your logo is the visual representation of your business. It will be used in all of your marketing collateral. Pick a simple design that plays into your niche and story.
You're finally ready to start building your online presence. This is how many travelers will find you when researching their trips. If you don't know how to build a website you have a few options; you could hire a contractor, hire someone in-house, or use Checkfront's code-free Site Builder. Whatever you choose, make sure your website's optimized for bookings.
You don't just want travelers to find you online; you want them to make, and pay, for reservations right on your website. To do this, you need an online booking system. Your booking system can also be used to process your in-person and over the phone reservations. Here are a few links that will help you find the platform that's right for you.
When starting a business, many entrepreneurs think they need to do everything on their own. This can lead to loneliness and frustration. And you don't have to do it alone. Many guides would be happy to share their knowledge with you. Go out and build relationships with other operators in your city, who aren't directly your competitors. Then take a trip somewhere and talk to guides that have the same type of company you are starting. Make a list of everything you can image going wrong and ask them how they dealt with it. You'll come away with a ton of valuable information and a new friend in your corner.
Now that you've made a few friends, you should find someone to act as your mentor. This can be an experienced tour operator or someone in a completely different industry. The key is to find someone who inspires you, will be brutally honest with you and will hold you accountable. Whenever you question yourself, and it will happen many times, it's good to have someone you trust to turn to for advice.
When you start a business, you are constantly learning. You learn from your experiences, your failures, and the people around you. But don't forget to take the opportunity to learn from locally hosted classes and seminars. Not only will it expand your network but you will come away with some new ideas and perspectives. If you walk away only learning one thing, it will be worth it.
Networking alone won't bring people to the amazing tour you create. The "build it, and they will come mantra" doesn't work anymore. You'll have to work for your first customers. Here are the channels you should zero in on.
Make it easy for travelers to find you by listing your tour on online travel agents (OTAs). OTA's like Viator, Expedia Local Expert, and GetYourGuide already have experience in digital advertising and have built up a mass following. Yes, they'll take a cut of your commissions (30-45%), but when you're getting started, it may be worth it to get guests through your door.
Now that you're tour is listed on a couple of OTAs it's time to start driving traffic to your owned website. The best long-term strategy to do so is through search engine optimization (SEO). You can use SEO best practices to optimize your site for Google and other search engines. That way when someone searches for something related to your tour, your website shows up in search results.
While SEO is great, it takes time to crawl up the search rankings. To get immediate results you can buy AdWords. Instead of waiting for Google's algorithm to show your website on the results page, you bid on keywords, so your site shows up on top of the page.
Once you have people going to your website you'll want to start building an email list. The list can be a combination of your customers and people who have subscribed through a form on your website. Send email newsletters and promotions to keep your list engaged and your business top of mind.
Connect with your guests and leads on Facebook. Create a Facebook page and post pictures of your tour. Use Messenger to answer people's questions, and use Facebook's ad network to help more people discover your tour. You can even add a "book now button" to your page to get bookings directly from Facebook.
Instagram and travel companies make the perfect pair. Travel shopping is a visual experience, and people go to Instagram to see beautiful pictures. Curate your feed with care and share images that will spark #wanderlust. Don't forget to include a link to your website in your Instagram bio.
When you first start advertising your tour, you'll want to test many different channels. But after a while, you should zoom in on what's performing best. Start using Google Analytics so you can track what sources are bringing the most traffic to your site, and the ones that get you the most paying customers. Then adjust your budgets to get the most of your ad dollars.
As you prepare for the launch of your new business, you'll want to do a few test runs. We recommend you host a few friends and family tour. Think of it as your dress rehearsal. Go through the tour start to finish and collect as much feedback as you can. Once you feel confident that you've worked out the kinks, you're ready to launch!
Building your own tour business is no easy feat. From choosing a niche and evaluating your market, to building relationships, your brand, your online presence and getting those first customers through the door. There's a lot of pieces to put together. However, following this guide, and your intuition, should provide you with a clear roadmap to help you build a successful tour operator business.
Just remember, once you launch your business the hard work begins. Click here to read the best time-saving tools for new businesses.
P.S. Don't forget to launch your tour business with a way for customers to book online.
Still not sure how online booking systems work, or why you need one for your business? We've got you covered!


I've been reflecting a lot in the last few years on my relationships with technology and the influence that it's had on my life. I've tried to answer questions like "Does having a subreddit for every esoteric interest make life better?" or "How valuable is twitter, actually?" The spirit of these questions is certainly not new, but it seems that I've yet to find a satisfying answer. While I originally thought that these questions had some value; the imminent arrival of my son has given these questions a new significance.
These are certainly not new questions. I remember my father musing about "kids these days" when he saw AOL Instant Messenger, email, and text messages dominate my social life; but he's also an engineer who has seen technology repeatedly improve our lives and society. He raised me to be technologically optimistic. Some of my fondest memories include building lego mindstorms robots together, or building computers together.
Every day questions, like how in the world a car could even be picked up by a magnet were met with an experiment where we constructed an electromagnet just to see how many nails we could pick up. Christmas always brought a new amazing technology that fundamentally changed the way that I viewed the world. I remember the iPod that I received in 2003. That I could fit so much music on it was remarkable! And the user interface was just… stunning. Novel gadgets were coveted because of the hope that they would be good, and they were good. They were always good.
As a naturally curious person, I was taught by example that technology was a force multiplier that allowed use to answer any question imaginable. Indeed, that's still the case. The internet still provides us with the ability read about any topic that I want. I've yet to encounter a question that wasn't answerable through diligent research or connecting with experts.
So then what's the problem? We all know. While technology has increased our access to experts, it has also increased our ability to seek out echo chambers and led to further misinformation and political polarization. We have unmatched tools for staying in contact with friends near and far, and yet we've never felt more isolated and lonely. We have tools that have been promised to drastically increase our productivity and yet, all they do is interrupt dinner with notifications about messages that don't matter. Addressing all of these issues in isolation feels difficult given that they're each a facet of the broader question: How can we take the best of technology while ignoring the worst?
Trying to answer this question has left me to reconsider my relationship with technology and the influence that it has on my life. As I've been on this journey, I've sought out books, articles, and conversations with close friends but many of these have inspired cynicism towards technology. I feel that this cynicism is myopic because technology has always inspired some form of hope in my life. My life as I know it wouldn't be possible with it! Working in the technology sector has provided me with my livelihood. I even believe in the technologies that we continue to build. I truly believe that AI, if worked on thoughtfully, can empower untold societal change. I see the possible benefits of the systems that we're building and I see no reason not to build them, but this is the response of an optimist.
Unfortunately, there is a growing body of literature that shows that many of our modern day technologies are ruining our ability to read, reason, and focus. Technologies such as social networks, streaming platforms, and smartphones provide us with the specifically designed intellectual junk food that allows us to disengage from the world around us. It's just so easy for me to pick up my phone and scroll through reddit any time I get bored, possible even during conversations with my wife – and for what? So that I can skim through yet another poorly informed comments section filled with people I don't know intent trying to score karma with dank-memes and hive-mind claims. When stated in such a manner, it's obvious that this is a poor trade off and yet, I do it. It'd be easy to spend the rest of this ranting about all the ways in which modern day technologies intellectually hijack me, but that's both boring and unoptimistic. Instead, it's worth focusing on the distinct benefits that technology provide and how to minimize the downsides.
One of the things that I noticed most frequently was this issue of notification anxiety, where I always felt the need to keep my notification tray empty, which resulted in more than 100 unlocks per day, on average. I've found that by keeping my phone on do not disturb for weeks at a time I've been able to quell the notification anxiety while also keeping that same notification tray empty. Importantly, I sit down and choose to process emails and that's the only time I view them. I've not yet removed the gmail app from my phone because the searching feature is far too useful, but I've found that without the constant notification anxiety, I've stopped checking the emails as well. While this felt revelatory at the moment, it's obvious now. The question then becomes, what is the point of email notifications? Or the amount of email that we send and receive? Do we actually feel any more connected, or do we just end up feeling more distracted? I'm not actually sure.
The attention capturing might be the most severe in the professional world where I am expected to respond to emails, slack messages, instant messages, in person chats, and phone calls. There are days where I do nothing but respond briefly to a range of emails and slacks for 8 hours and then head home, exhausted, and entirely unproductive. Given the types of technologies that I'm building, I certainly don't have the time to just waste entire days keeping up with all of these communications media. I have math to do, code to write, and models to train. All of those tasks require deep thought, and getting distracted by communications media, my phone, or the news actively prevents me from building the things that I want to build. I have found that by cutting these distractions out, I have been able to more easily keep up with the literature in my field. Because this is my profession, understanding the gory details and nuances of how an algorithm or model develops over time is literally a professional responsibility. I'm not constantly worried about the racist things that Steve King says so there is the mental energy to engage with a new and interesting knowledge graph paper without issue. Is it actually good that I've decided to become a less informed citizen? Or have I actually become less informed? Is it even a problem? And what do I want to model for my child?
In my personal life, it's been easy to experiment with possible actions in my personal life, but how can I make sure that I'm actually picking the most healthy solutions? Do we even know what the most healthy solutions are? What lessons do I want to teach my son about technology? Is guarded optimism even an option? Given that many of the above observations highlighted on the anxiety introduced by notifications and other frequent technological refocusing actions, how do I help my son avoid falling victim to these same traps? Is it even a problem that he could be or am I making a mountain out of a mole-hill?
Furthermore, I'm broadly part of the problem given the industry that I work in. If after deep examination of my life and my relationship with technology, I've resolved to drastically cut back on my technological interactions, my question is: how can I take these personal, introspective, learnings and generalize them to be professionally responsible? It's certainly plausible that sectors such as ad-tech, algorithmic targeting, and gameification should be avoided. I've been able to avoid such projects thus far, but what about Forge.AI and the fintech/news processing technologies that we're building? What are their downstream ramifications?
What do we as a profession owe the people who have used our work product? Is an apology sufficient? Is it even warranted? Are we as a profession just responding to consumer desires? We can attempt this argument, but we've all dog-fooded our own systems. I know many people in tech that refuse to own smartphones for the reasons identified above, and yet they still make these technologies. Are they just assuming that the end user is educated enough to make the right decision? Is that really ever the case?
Do we as a community even care, or is this only a luxury afforded to those who are already able to support their families? And who do I mean by we anyway? It feels like I'm maybe using we to avoid blaming myself; but maybe it's acknowledgment that these problems are bigger than myself? Maybe.
So what are we to do? What am I to do? I'll probably continue to think about this, but continue to disarm how uncomfortable this conversation can be my making jokes. I'll tell myself that it's likely that by attempting to think through this from time to time, and talking about it over drinks with friends, I'll be doing my part. Maybe I will be, or maybe it's all just a day late and a dollar sort. Maybe.


Twenty Years of ISO 9001 Certification for KSV Vending.
The British Standards Institute (BSI) introduced the first UK standard for quality assurance way back in 1971. The standard was designated BS9000. The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) was formed in 1947 following a meeting of delegates from 25 founding countries in London the previous year. Based in Geneva ISO now has 162 members and to date has published over 22,000 International standards across most aspects of technology and manufacturing.
The ISO 9001 Standard was first published in 1987, and ten years later KSV Vending achieved full certification for our Quality Management which has been maintained with regular Quality Audits ever since.
This week saw KSV Vending take a significant step toward meeting the very latest ISO 9001 2015 Standard that replaced ISO 9001 2008 from September this year. But customer service and commitment are about far more than independent Certification, although ISO 9001 ensures that the high standards KSV Vending set themselves are both monitored and recorded.