Once you’ve decided on an innovative tour idea, the next step should be practicalities. Register a business name so you can legally trade under it.
Registration with business insurance will help protect your assets while making filing taxes simpler. In addition, consider listing tours with online travel agents (OTA), who do take commission but could bring more bookings your way.
1. Know Your Target Market
Once you are certain you can meet all the requirements necessary to launch your local tour guide business (for instance registering with your tourism body and complying with safety standards), it is time to define who your target market will be. This step involves identifying which tourists are most likely to visit your area, providing an experience tailored specifically for them and devising ways of reaching them.
Your local tour guide business should appeal most to travellers unfamiliar with your region, and as such you should focus your marketing efforts on creating an appealing website with information such as top tourist attractions, photography of beautiful locales, pricing packages and testimonials from past customers.
To price your tours accurately, it is wise to research comparable experiences in other cities and countries to avoid overpricing or underpricing offerings that can damage revenue generation or brand image.
Some local tour guides also offer additional services such as transport and photography to make them more appealing to certain types of tourists. Others specialize in specific seasons; city walking tours typically see their busiest days in summer while ghost tours receive more attendees around Halloween.
Strikingly’s user-friendly and cost-effective online site builder makes creating a website for your local tour guide business quick and painless; just sign up for free account and select an eye-catching template before adding all relevant details about yourself, including experience as a tour guide, contact details, social media pages integrations, tour prices etc.
2. Create a Website
Your local tour guide business relies heavily on its website as a key promotional and informational tool. People will use it to learn about your services and booking options, so it needs to be both accessible and informative.
Make sure your website includes the essential details your customers will want to see, such as pricing, location, photos and reviews. Your site can also serve as an important platform for sharing company values and goals – and professional web designers may be available if needed; alternatively you could try an online website builder instead to build it yourself.
Once your target market has been identified, the next step should be identifying its demographics. Doing this will enable you to craft marketing and sales strategies tailored specifically towards this ideal audience – using surveys, interviews or online research as appropriate – in order to create innovative tour packages designed to woo them.
When interviewing prospective guides, make sure to inquire about their passion and experience in the industry. Furthermore, find someone punctual and responsible as they will represent your business to guests. Lastly, supervise guides during their first few tours so you can detect any problems before they become serious.
Be sure to contact local tour bodies beforehand in order to obtain all of the required licenses and health and safety requirements in place, which will save both time and money in the long run. Depending on where your tour operation is based, taxes may also need to be registered for.
3. Market Your Tours
Now that you are acquainted with your local tour body’s requirements and feel ready to launch a new venture, the next step should be marketing tours through your website and social media accounts.
Create an online brochure that contains all of the key details about your tour package, giving customers confidence in you and helping them decide whether or not to book their tours with you. A booking button on your site also enables customers to book instantly.
Once your website is up and running, you should begin building an email list to reduce reliance on first-time customers and engage them. Regular newsletters or promotions sent directly to this list can keep them engaged and keep customers coming back!
Utilize your website to post authentic photos, infographics and videos that add value to your audience and attract natural backlinks that will boost your search engine ranking. Furthermore, viral posts could help expand your tour business exponentially with minimal effort required from you.
Create an engaging brand story that sets you apart from competitors and helps people understand why your tour stands out from others. Consider outlining why it started and its history; then discuss its purpose and passion behind its creation as this will act as your USP and demonstrate why your tour stands out from others.
As another marketing tip for your tour business, embracing reviews can be beneficial in building trust among customers while showing that you appreciate their input. Responding to reviews with professionalism and kindness shows customers you care for them and respect their feedback.
4. Build an Email List
Building an email list is a powerful way to expand your local tour guide business. Sending regular reminders about upcoming tour programs keeps people engaged while teasers allow discounts to be promoted more easily. Furthermore, adding PCI DSS Level 1 certification ensures payments are processed safely for each customer.
Utilizing guest photos and testimonials can also boost bookings. Travelers appreciate this type of content because it gives them a glimpse of what to expect during a tour and can help them decide if it is worth booking or not.
Listing tours on online travel agencies (OTAs) is also an effective way to reach a wider audience than just direct followers. When listing experiences, try differentiating yourself by offering unique packages.
Hiring the appropriate guides can make or break your tour business. Your guides must possess extensive knowledge about their destinations of visit and an enthusiasm for what they do; be able to communicate effectively and provide outstanding customer service; be trained on handling unexpected situations and complaints efficiently and responsibly; finally be trained so they are equipped to deal with unexpected events that arise during tours.
As part of starting up your own tour business, you will require some start-up capital in order to cover initial expenses. There are various means available to you when it comes to financing this new endeavor – personal savings accounts, bank loans, crowdfunding platforms or angel investors may provide adequate finance options. Once you know all the expenses and revenue projections associated with starting the tour company you can select the optimal financing solution for yourself.
5. Connect With Your Customers on Social Media
Be sure your customers feel valued and appreciated; this can be achieved by offering exceptional customer service and creating loyalty programs. Loyal customers tend to refer their friends and family, helping you expand your customer base further. Providing customers with amazing experiences may even result in positive online reviews boosting your business further!
Before starting a local tour guide business, it’s important to identify your target market. Knowing who your clients will be will allow you to develop an appropriate marketing plan and strategy – for instance if your target audience consists of families then child-friendly tours may be in order. Solo travelers should expect more adventurous tours. In addition, it would also be useful to research what competitors are doing to attract customers by searching top travel job boards such as LinkedIn.
Once you understand your niche and USP, the next step should be designing your brand identity. Create a logo through one of many free services like 99designs or hire someone to custom design one specifically for your business. Next, pick a color scheme that complements both.
Once your local tour guide business has established a presence online, its next step should be constructing a website. This will give potential customers an overview of your company and allow them to book tours directly through you. Your website should include details such as contact info and services available as well as any pertinent company news that might impact business performance.
Once your website is up and running, you can begin marketing it across social media and other websites. Existing customers could leave reviews of your tour on TripAdvisor or similar review platforms to drive more business to you.
