In this episode Mitch Bach sits down with Marinel de Jesus, a former human rights lawyer turned tour operator.

She is filled with questions about the adventure tour industry:

Why do porters on the famous, touristy Inca Trail in Peru carry crushing loads for little pay and even less dignity? Why is it so difficult to find women adventure guides in so many parts of the world? What do indigenous communities actually want from tourism—and why doesn't anyone bother to ask them?

These are just some of the uncomfortable questions and themes she's carried with her as she's lived and trekked around the world. Originally from the Philippines, she became a human rights lawyer in Washington D.C., spending 15 years prosecuting child protection and mental health cases. Then her mother passed away—and she never went back to the office. But Marinel didn't just start a tour company. She moved into indigenous communities. She lived with Quechua porters in Peru and learned the dark truths behind the picture-perfect Inca Trail. She spent nearly 300 days in Mongolia during Covid, co-creating a nomad camp that started with tea and a blank piece of paper—not a business plan. She walked 100 days across Nepal with Mingmar, a female guide she searched for over a year and a half to find, proving that women belong on the Great Himalaya Trail.

This discussion challenges everything we assume about adventure tourism—the colonial narratives baked into our itineraries, the voices we never hear, the scripts we impose on communities who know how to welcome guests far better than we do. She makes the case for showing up with no agenda, listening before designing, and building something that matters more than scale.

Marinel's organizations:

1. Equity Global Treks (Brown Gal Trekker)
2. The Porter Voice Collective
3. Her vision for Himalayan Women Trail Leaders
4. Her film KM82 on the Quechuan Porters of Peru
5. The Khusvegi English & Nomadic Culture Camp she helped start in Mongolia

More show notes and resources on tourpreneur.com

This short episode was recorded live at GetYourGuide's Unlocked conference in September 2025.

When you meet Arturo Ardao Rivera, the first thing you feel is his energy. He doesn't come off as an engineer, which was his profession until he discovered a joy for tour guiding and running a tour business. Originally from Madrid, Arturo found his true passion when he created Rainbow Tours Stockholm. It has grown from a solo operation to employing 26 guides.

His story is one of rejecting some of his engineering tendencies (choosing feelings over numbers!) and leaning into strategies that appear unorthodox but have worked well for him.

You'll discover:

1. His unique "taxi tariff" model for private tours, and his approach to hyper-personalization.
2. Why he doesn't ask for reviews
3. Why he's not sold on the "get more bookings" industry mantra
4. Why he visits guides he's thinking of hiring in their comfort zone, not his
5. How guide applicants are asked to become undercover tour takers
6. How he leverages running two separate brands for pricing strategy
7. How he grow leveraging 10+ OTA partners, and how he's managing his distribution mix

Connect with Arturo on LinkedIn, and visit Rainbow Tours Stockholm!

It's 2026... welcome to a new year of Tourpreneur weekly travel business podcasts!

And we're starting the year off in a slightly different vein.

This episode is a must-listen to help you set a new and hopefully inspirational, deeper tone for your year ahead as a business owner or guide.

Our opening guest is the inimitable Dr. Anu Taranath, a professor, author, and facilitator. She's truly one of a kind. She gave the opening keynote at last year's Tourpreneur conference, and blew everyone away.

So Tourpreneur's Mitch Bach was excited to sit down with Anu to challenge Tourpreneurs to think new thoughts about what they're doing as business owners. Yes, our job is to bring joy and entertainment and storytelling to our guests. Yes, our job as business owners is to show up for the daily grind of practical, nuts and bolts business. That's the spine of many of our lives out there.

This episode will ask you to go deeper.

If you rest on only the level of entertainment, and 'customer service' and professionalism, you're missing an opportunity for greater meaning, both in your business and your guests' lives.

Anu asks you to think of your role as creating not only staged performances, but also spaces and containers to "rehumanize humans" and "normalize the normal"—that is, the kinds of human questions about culture and difference that are normal reactions to a travel experience that stretches people.

It's an invitation to take off the armor — yours and your guests, and create something more meaningful together, something deeply human.

As always, more show notes and links on tourpreneur.com.

1. Dr. Anu's Website
2. Connect with Anu on LinkedIn
3. Anu's Instagram
4. Anu's book, Beyond Guilt Trips

Pete Syme interviews Andrea Lamparini from WeRoad, a hybrid tech company and tour operator that's rewriting the rules of group travel for millennials and Gen Z. The conversation reveals how WeRoad has achieved exceptional growth by building a community-first model where strangers become friends through small group experiences, using travel coordinators instead of traditional guides, operating as a curated marketplace where top coordinators design their own trips, and leveraging technology to scale operations with one-third of their 200-person team dedicated to tech. Andrea shares how they maintain quality with 4,000+ casual travel coordinators who each lead just one trip per year, why they leave 30-40% of each itinerary unstructured for group decision-making, how their supply model works across 68-70 DMCs globally, and why they're expanding into B2B channels including travel agencies, employee benefit programs, and corporate partnerships that already represent 17-18% of revenue. The discussion covers their VC backing (rare for a tour operator), plans for US expansion in 2026, the power of their We Meet app hosting 50,000 community members at events this year, and Andrea's key lesson learned: curating their marketplace offering earlier would have prevented the conversion drop caused by overwhelming choice.

Top Ten Takeaways

1. Travel Coordinators Work Alongside Local Guides

WeRoad uses travel coordinators who are the same age as travelers, depart from the same home country, and focus on facilitating group dynamics rather than delivering local expertise. Local guides are still included for museums, parks, and other sites where specialized knowledge is needed. Travel coordinators create WhatsApp groups one month before departure, balance introverted and extroverted personalities, and coordinate the 30-40% of unstructured time built into every itinerary. WeRoad has 4,000+ coordinators working casual contracts with a commitment of just one trip per year.

2. Quality at Scale Without Full-Time Staff

Coordinators go through online applications, webinars, group interviews, and a final boot camp weekend with 100 candidates. Most visit destinations for the first time, but rigorous hiring and training ensure consistency. Local DMC partners provide backup if logistics fail. Top performers can become "producers" who design and scout their own trips.

3. Groups Decide 30-40% of Their Itinerary in Real Time

Accommodations, transport, and core experiences are fixed, but dinners, half-days, and optional activities are decided by the group during the trip based on their interests and budget. Travel coordinators provide options and handle bookings with local partners, personalizing the experience to match group energy.

4. A Curated Marketplace Scales the Portfolio 5x

WeRoad's internal team creates 200 itineraries while travel producers create 1,000+ more. This model scaled their catalog 5x without adding internal headcount. All producers use standardized supply agreements ensuring every DMC meets centralized requirements for safety, insurance, compliance, and capacity.

5. Supply Quality Is Non-Negotiable

WeRoad works with 68-70 DMCs globally, visits partner sites, and monitors quality constantly. The rule is simple: mess up once or twice and you're out. Because each group makes different choices during unstructured time, suppliers must be flexible enough to support varied activities in every destination.

6. Community Extends Beyond Travel Through We Meet

The We Meet app hosts 10,000+ events across Europe where 50,000 people connected this year. Travel coordinators organize pottery classes, running groups, hiking, pub quizzes, and weekend trips in their home cities. This keeps travelers engaged between their one or two annual trips and drives repeat bookings.

7. One-Third of Staff Are Tech People

WeRoad built their entire platform internally: booking websites, supply platforms for internal operators and external producers, and the We Meet app. They use AI for customer service, machine learning for demand forecasting that gives suppliers 12-month projections, and sentiment analysis to understand feedback at scale.

8. Growth Comes From Digital, Community, and B2B Channels

WeRoad started with digital acquisition through social media and paid channels, building massive accounts that visualize the beauty of trips and community. They recently launched a global partnership program targeting travel agencies, employee benefit platforms, corporate retreats, and associations. This B2B channel already represents 17-18% of total volume.

9. VCs Invest in Tour Operators That Look Like Tech Platforms

WeRoad is unusually VC-backed for a tour operator because investors see them as a tech platform sustaining a brand mission. Strong unit economics in mature markets mean they can self-finance growth, but external investment accelerates new market expansion. The focus remains on sustainable growth, not burning money short-term.

10. Overwhelming Choice Kills Conversion

Andrea's biggest lesson: curate your marketplace offering early. When WeRoad first opened to travel producers, the abundance of trips—including duplicates—confused customers and decreased conversion. They now prioritize how offerings are visualized and presented, not just experience quality. US expansion is planned for 2026 after strengthening European markets, followed by Asia and Middle East. Japan is currently their most popular destination.

Christy Hunter started Photo Walk Nashville seven years ago after discovering Airbnb Experiences, combining her photography skills with local knowledge to create tours that capture memories for travelers. What began as open photo shoots quickly evolved as she learned to segment products for different customer types—bachelorette parties, couples, solo travelers, dog owners, and corporate groups.

The conversation covers her product development journey, including early mistakes like mixing incompatible customer types and learning when to say no. Christy emphasizes the importance of local partnerships, sharing examples like teaming up with cosmetic brand Winky Lux for a home base and an apartment complex for rooftop access.

On marketing, Christy shares her successful TikTok strategy: having team member Gina speak directly to camera as if she were a past guest ("You have to do this one thing in Nashville..."), which drove multiple viral videos and direct bookings. She also discusses influencer marketing from both sides—as a tour operator and as an influencer herself—stressing the importance of clear communication, doing research on engagement rates, and not asking for specific deliverables.

Christy expanded to Charleston this year when a team member relocated, keeping the same operational model rather than franchising. She's also building Go To Nashville, an OTA reselling partner experiences through Tour Base's affiliate system. Looking ahead, she's focused on increasing capacity utilization rather than geographic expansion, and launching a consulting business to help other photographers and retailers enter the tourism space.

Top 10 Takeaways

1. She learned to segment products by customer type after mixing incompatible groups. Couples from Ohio and bachelorette parties on the same tour didn't work. She created separate experiences for bachelorette parties, dog owners, proposals, and corporate groups. She also had to add rules like no showing up intoxicated.
2. Local partnerships solved operational problems. She partnered with Winky Lux cosmetics to use their store as a tour base. She partnered with an apartment complex to do one event per month in exchange for building access, free parking, gym, pool, and exclusive rooftop access for a champagne add-on.
3. She met business partner Gina through Airbnb host meetups. Gina developed scheduling systems for Photo Walk and now leads their TikTok strategy. They found a part-time scheduling manager who is also one of their hosts to keep operations in the family.
4. Styled shoots solve the content creation problem. Designate one day per quarter or year, hire models (friends and family work), hire a photographer, and simulate the tour experience. Creating content during real tours is too difficult.
5. Their TikTok strategy: Gina speaks as if she's a past guest. She says "you have to do this one thing in Nashville" direct to camera. They had multiple viral videos and saw direct booking surges. They repeat the same hook for different demographics. TikTok shows it to different audiences each time.
6. Influencer marketing is about clear communication and research. Look at engagement rates, not follower counts. Check if they have real followers by looking at views relative to follower count. Don't ask for specific deliverables. Show them a good time and they'll naturally post. Get expectations in writing.
7. She hires photographers who are connectors and storytellers first. Technical skill matters, but being a people person is more important. She uses live view mode to avoid putting the camera between her and the guest. She tells guests upfront she has posing ideas so they relax.
8. She tracks booking sources through Peak's intake form. She asks "how did you hear about us?" Her biggest sources are Google, Facebook groups (Nashville visitors pages), and TikTok.
9. Her growth strategy is "fill the bus" not geographic expansion. Rather than opening in five cities in five years, she wants to get four or five people on tours that currently have two. Same time and overhead, better revenue. She still wants to be out leading tours, not behind a computer.
10. Charleston expansion happened organically when a Nashville team member relocated. They kept the same operational model rather than franchising. She handles scheduling and marketing centrally. Charleston is 40 minutes by plane, so she can support when needed.

Ryan Connolly went from finance analyst to glacier guide to co-founder of Hidden Iceland. In this episode, he shares the numbers behind their most pivotal business decision: cutting small group tours that represented 50% of their departures but only 10% of revenue.

That shift to exclusively premium and luxury private tours helped the company grow by 5% while improving quality and profitability. Ryan explains how relationship marketing drives 70% of their bookings directly without OTAs, why they lead with education when working with travel advisors, and why PR outperforms paid advertising when selling luxury experiences.

Plus, the story of how a three-year journey across 40 countries led him to Iceland, where he met his wife on a glacier tour and built a business with two partners.

Top 10 Takeaways for Tour Operators

1. Cut unprofitable segments ruthlessly

Small group tours accounted for 50% of Hidden Iceland's departures but only 10% of revenue. After eliminating that segment, they grew 5% by focusing resources on premium and luxury private tours where margins are higher.

2. Partner with competitors instead of viewing them as threats

When customers can't afford Hidden Iceland's luxury pricing, Ryan personally introduces them to partner companies that serve the budget segment. This maintains relationships and positions them as helpful experts rather than pushy salespeople.

3. PR drives better ROI than paid ads for high ticket sales

Over 450 articles in publications like Condé Nast, Forbes, and CNN have driven 70% direct bookings. For luxury trips ($20,000+), earned media builds trust better than Facebook or Google ads.

4. Lead with personal story in first customer contact

Ryan's initial email starts: "Hello, my name is Ryan. I'm originally Scottish. I've lived in Iceland since 2016. I originally trained as a glacier guide..." This builds immediate trust and differentiates from transactional competitors.

5. Educate travel advisors. Don't just sell to them

Hidden Iceland runs webinars teaching agents about Iceland's seasons, distances, and what each time of year offers. Not sales pitches. The education first approach builds meaningful advisor relationships that generate 30% of bookings.

6. Vet activity partners on safety and environmental standards

Before partnering with snowmobile companies, helicopter tours, or other providers, Hidden Iceland shares their own safety and environmental policies first, then asks partners to reciprocate. This creates collaboration, not just transactions.

7. Train guides to be themselves, not follow scripts

Instead of teaching guides what to say at each stop, Hidden Iceland tells them: "Be yourself in the most authentic way possible and create genuine connections." This leads to reviews that praise the guide more than the destination.

8. Choose conferences strategically. Avoid the herd

Ryan skips luxury travel conferences if more than 2 or 3 other Iceland companies will attend. Less competition means easier differentiation and more meaningful conversations with travel advisors.

9. Keep the sales process low tech and high touch

Despite having a CRM (LEMACS), Hidden Iceland puts key itinerary details in the body of emails and offers phone calls early. For luxury clients, human connection trumps slick automation.

10. Build the business with partners you trust implicitly

Ryan emphasizes: "Don't set up a company with anyone you don't trust inherently and that you believe will communicate effectively during the hardest times." Through pandemics and volcanic eruptions, Hidden Iceland's three owners have never shouted at each other because they chose partnership carefully.

Kevin and Sylvia launched iRide Arusha in July 2024, offering motorcycle tours and rentals in Tanzania. Within 18 months they scaled across four East African cities through a franchise model called iRide Africa, with partners operating in Rwanda, Nairobi, and Mombasa. The franchise structure allows riders to cross borders and book multi-country tours.

The episode covers operational realities: importing equipment across borders, navigating tourism regulations, managing multi-country payment processing, and running rentals and guided tours as two distinct businesses with different customer profiles and sales cycles. Kevin and Sylvia share how they find customers through motorcycle clubs, price for premium buyers, and use immediate response times as a competitive advantage.

TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS

1. Test adjacent niches when your market is saturated

Rather than launch another safari company in an oversaturated market, Kevin and Sylvia identified motorcycle touring as an underserved adventure niche in East Africa. Consider what adjacent experiences your destination supports that competitors aren't offering.

2. Franchise models can scale faster than going solo

Within 18 months, iRide expanded across four East African cities through franchise partnerships. Partners share mechanics, bikes, marketing resources, and customer referrals. This creates a network effect where riders can start in one country and end in another, adding value no single operator could deliver alone.

3. Target communities, not just individuals

Kevin reaches out directly to motorcycle clubs in major US cities. One Chicago BMW Riders club is bringing eight people in February. Booking one club creates the revenue of eight individual customers with a fraction of the acquisition cost. Find the clubs, associations, or communities that match your experience type.

4. Customer service is a competitive advantage in developing markets

Their immediate response times and willingness to hop on Zoom calls builds trust fast, especially for customers who've never been to Africa.

5. Platform diversification requires testing, not guessing

iRide is on Get Your Guide, Viator, Klook, WeTravel, and fielding Facebook messages, but hasn't found the magic channel yet. Test widely, track what converts, double down there.

6. Price for the experience you're actually delivering, not your self-doubt

Kevin admits they severely underpriced at launch. Beginner business owners often can't see their own value clearly. If you're offering wow moments and authentic connections, charge accordingly.

7. Guided vs. rental requires different marketing and operations

Rental customers (experienced, self-sufficient, quick decision makers) need less hand-holding than guided tour customers (more questions, longer planning cycles, higher price points). These are functionally two different businesses with different messaging, pricing, and customer profiles.

8. Gross revenue and net income are very different

Vehicle maintenance, cross-border parts sourcing, and insurance eat into margins constantly. Build cash reserves and expect hidden costs, especially in asset-heavy businesses.

9. Local language fluency unlocks competitive advantages

Sylvia's Swahili fluency helped navigate Interpol holds on imported bikes, handle tourism police complaints from competitors, and build long-term supplier relationships. Language access isn't just customer-facing—it's operational power.

10. Differentiation isn't just what you do, it's how guests connect

Guests consistently cite the vastness of the landscape and local interactions (like lunch with Sylvia's 88-year-old farming grandmother) as their standout memories. Design for connection points your format uniquely enables.

This conversation with Jeff Gayduk, publisher of Premier Travel Media, reveals an industry at a transformative inflection point where specialized group travel is experiencing unprecedented growth despite predictions of its demise. Speaking from his unique vantage point overseeing multiple travel industry verticals, Gayduk identifies 2026 as a watershed year driven by three major events—the World Cup, Route 66's centennial, and America's 250th anniversary—while highlighting the explosive growth in niche markets from pickleball tourism to multi-generational family trips. The discussion underscores a fundamental shift in how travel experiences are designed and marketed, moving away from cookie-cutter itineraries toward highly specialized, passion-driven offerings that leverage everything from sports tournaments to career readiness programs, with successful operators focusing on authentic relationships and deep expertise rather than trying to compete with legacy brands on traditional offerings.

10 Key Takeaways

1. Group Travel is Experiencing Its Most Exciting Era

The group travel market has undergone a complete transformation since COVID, moving from a defensive position of proving relevance to an offensive surge of innovation and growth. Special interest groups, family bonding experiences, and educational opportunities are creating unique travel products unavailable to individual consumers. The pandemic's forced separation actually accelerated demand for meaningful group experiences rather than diminishing it.

2. Three Major Events Will Define 2026 Tourism

The World Cup across 16 North American cities will bring 6.5 million visitors with 40% from overseas, creating massive opportunities for tour operators in hub cities. Route 66's anniversary and America's 250th celebration will generate patriotic tourism and historical programming throughout the year. These events create both standalone opportunities and chances for creative tour operators to build complementary experiences around the main attractions.

3. Sports Tourism Has Become the Industry's Hidden Giant

Youth sports tournaments drive consistent weekend travel with families spending whatever necessary for their children's athletic participation, creating massive but underserved tourism segments. Adult amateur sports, particularly pickleball, are seeing explosive growth with facilities featuring 32-64 courts becoming destinations themselves. The opportunity lies not in the games themselves but in creating experiences for the downtime between matches, serving families who are tourists without tour infrastructure.

4. The Student Travel Market Has Evolved Beyond Class Trips

Career readiness programs are emerging as students face AI-driven uncertainty about future employment, with manufacturers and trade schools becoming unexpected tourism partners. Small, specialized STEM groups and performance ensembles are replacing massive band trips, creating opportunities for highly targeted educational experiences. College visit tours have become sophisticated multi-campus experiences as the stakes for education choices continue rising.

5. Niche Specialization Beats General Tourism Every Time

"The riches are in the niches" has proven true as operators who focus on specific passions outperform those trying to compete on standard itineraries. Technology now enables operators to reach highly specific audiences globally rather than being limited to local marketing through yellow pages and park districts. The tighter the niche, the easier it becomes to market and the more likely customers are to pay premium prices for expertise.

6. Multi-Generational Travel Represents Billions in Untapped Opportunity

Older Americans with disposable income are funding entire family trips, from luxury yacht cruises to Disney vacations, often including extended family and friends. These trips require sophisticated customization that big operators can't provide, creating opportunities for bespoke tour designers. The spending on these milestone celebration trips is "mind-boggling" according to industry data, with grandparents willing to invest heavily in family bonding experiences.

7. DMOs Are Underutilized Partners for Tour Operators

Destination Marketing Organizations spend hundreds of thousands on marketing but need tour operators to provide the actual bookable products visitors seek. DMOs possess mountains of data and local insights that operators often don't know to request, creating missed opportunities for partnership. The relationship should be symbiotic: DMOs drive inspiration and awareness while operators deliver the experiences that fulfill that inspiration.

8. Legacy Operators Must Balance Old Customers with New Acquisition

Large traditional operators face the challenge of serving aging loyal customers while attracting younger demographics with different travel styles and expectations. Successful adaptation includes smaller group sizes, slower itineraries with longer stays, and the integration of river cruising as a bridge product. The human relationship element that made these companies successful remains their key differentiator even as they modernize their offerings.

9. Travel Advisors Are Specializing to Survive and Thrive

The successful travel advisor model has shifted from selling airline tickets to becoming highly specialized experts in specific destinations, cruise lines, or travel styles. Good advisors serve as client advocates navigating an increasingly complex travel landscape, especially for multi-generational or special interest trips. The question remains whether there's a sufficient pipeline of new advisors entering the field to sustain this specialized, high-touch service model.

10. Experience Design Trumps Destination Marketing

Modern travelers seek transformative experiences rather than destination checkboxes, with operators succeeding by creating unique access and authentic local connections. Events from Taylor Swift concerts to World Cup matches are becoming trip anchors, with some operators building entire experiences around events without even including tickets. The shift represents a fundamental change from "where are we going" to "what will we become through this experience."

Pete Syme talks with Drew Falkman about vibe coding, a way for tour operators to build custom software tools using plain English prompts instead of traditional programming. Drew explains how AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude have been trained on code repositories, allowing them to generate working applications from simple descriptions. The conversation covers why this matters for small operators, what you can build, the learning curve, costs, security considerations, and how this technology could shift the relationship between tour operators and the software they depend on. Pete emphasizes that operators already have the same AI access as hundred million dollar companies and encourages spending at least an hour daily experimenting with these tools.

Top 10 Takeaways

1. You can build tools without coding knowledge. AI tools trained on code repositories can generate working applications from plain English descriptions, making app building accessible to anyone.
2. Most SaaS tools don't fit your exact workflow. You end up paying for applications where 80% of features you're not using because they're designed for other industries, but the things you do use aren't quite refined enough.
3. Start with internal workflows, not customer-facing apps. Build tools for internal processes first. Don't go public with what you build until you have experience, as you can get 80 to 90% correct quickly, but that last bit is more challenging.
4. Map your processes before building. Write down all your processes on paper, rank what's most important, and list what you really don't like doing. This helps identify where custom tools can have the biggest impact.
5. The learning curve has three main steps. First, learn to plan what you want to build (20 to 30 hours). Second, design the workflow and user interface (a few hours). Third, understand data and databases (a couple days). Total time to get comfortable is roughly a few weeks of focused learning.
6. Tools like Lovable cost around $20 per month. There are small monthly fees for vibe coding platforms, plus hosting costs if your tool is public-facing. Tools like Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Magic Patterns, and N8n each serve different purposes.
7. Keep data storage minimal for security. Don't store sensitive information like credit card numbers or social security numbers. Use third-party authentication (Google, Microsoft, Apple) and payment processors like Stripe to handle sensitive data.
8. You can build custom booking flows and optimize conversions. Create your own booking engine where you control every step, then use analytics tools to see where people drop off and experiment with improvements to increase completion rates.
9. This threatens the traditional SaaS industry. Large companies spending millions monthly on SaaS are already exploring vibe coding to reduce costs. What happens at that level will cascade down through the industry to the tools small operators use today.
10. Just try it to understand the possibilities. Go to lovable.dev, run a prompt, and build something. You won't fully understand what you can do until you experiment. You have nothing to lose with free versions, and no one else will see your experiments.

Want to learn vibe coding yourself? Drew teaches courses on building apps without code. Visit drewfalkman.com to explore free resources and paid courses that walk you through the process step by step.

Born from a wine import business and shaped by deep relationships with multi‑generational wineries, Joy of Wine Journeys built a premium, multi‑day model with a ~75% repeat rate. Natalie shares why they skip big cities, how “depth over density” creates value, and how pricing, partnerships, feedback, and tight ops compound into growth.

Top 10 takeaways

1) Repeat guests keep coming back. About 75% rebook, often bringing friends and family. Nail the first trip and lifetime value follows.

2) Win the in between. Don’t try to run Paris or Venice. Guests fly into a gateway, then the tour connects the regions in between where long winery relationships unlock access and stories.

3) Fewer stops, deeper moments. Five wineries in ten days. Hosted visits. Family meals. Time to linger. People remember conversations and rituals, not mileage.

4) Price for the value you deliver. Raise prices as the experience improves. Let booking behavior and guest comments set the ceiling, not nerves.

5) Partners make you resilient. When a bus failed, local partners mobilized vans, cold water, and support within the hour. Good relationships turn problems into loyalty moments.

6) Feedback is the roadmap. Debrief during and after each tour, then keep, change, or cut. Trim bloat, smooth pacing, and upgrade hotels, meals, wines, and transport.

7) Know who you serve. Average age ~63. Well traveled. Hungry for hosted, exclusive experiences without snobbery. Design pacing, teaching, and access for that person.

8) Confirm, confirm, confirm. Book a year out, then reconfirm at six months, three months, one month, and day‑of. Fewer surprises. Smoother days.

9) Help in the cities even if you don’t operate there. Refer guests to vetted guides in Venice, Milan, Paris, Nice, and Florence so the whole trip feels looked after.

10) Use tech to support margins, not as the magic. TravelJoy for CRM, WeTravel for euro payments, Travelfy for itineraries, QuickBooks for the back office. The differentiator is still access, hosting, and relationships.

When Justin Buzzi launched a clear kayak tour in Florida, his goal was to offer something memorable. What he built was one of the most highly rated kayak experiences in the country—with over 50,000 five-star reviews and 30+ franchise locations.

In this episode, Justin joins Dustin Miller of Conversion Assist to unpack how they built a guest experience that keeps working long after the paddles are down. From guide training to personalized automations, they reveal the systems and strategies behind their flywheel of reviews, repeat customers, and referrals.

Whether you run one tour or many, this conversation offers clear, actionable ideas for tightening operations, earning stronger reviews, and building a reputation that scales.

Top 10 Takeaways

1. Start with experience. Build with systems. Clear kayaks got attention, but it was the systems behind the scenes—like training, hiring, and guest communication—that turned Get Up and Go Kayaking into a scalable business.
2. Google reviews matter most. While they still collect reviews on TripAdvisor, Airbnb, and Facebook, the team prioritizes Google for its impact on search visibility and conversion. That focus shapes everything from email copy to in-person asks.
3. Follow up with every guest, not just the booker. After each tour, automated messages go out to everyone who attended—not just the person who paid. That alone tripled their review volume in one year.
4. Set expectations before guests arrive. Automated pre-tour texts help guests feel informed, reduce no-shows, and create a smoother arrival. That positive start lays the groundwork for better reviews.
5. Empower guides to own the guest relationship.Top guides build connection, read the group, and ask for reviews in ways that feel natural. Some have personally earned over 2,000 five-star reviews through great service and follow-up.
6. Automation can still feel personal. With name-based SMS, segmented follow-ups, and smart timing, Dustin’s system balances efficiency with a human touch. Guests feel supported without extra strain on the team.
7. Use your off-season to get stronger. Slow months are for updating SOPs, refreshing content, replacing gear, and optimizing tools. When the season picks up again, the whole operation runs better.
8. Your reviews are a roadmap. Use AI to analyze common praise and complaints in your reviews. What guests love should shape your messaging. What they question should inform training or improvements.
9. Bad reviews are a chance to show who you are. Reply quickly, stay calm, and put future guests at ease. Dustin recommends using AI to help write thoughtful, emotionally neutral responses if needed.
10. Great reviews grow more than bookings. Consistent five-star reviews improve search rankings, boost conversion rates, and increase the long-term value of your company. It’s not just a feedback loop—it’s a growth engine.