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- Anyone on here organize tours?
- By:admin
- In the near future maybe, I'm thinking of starting my own bike tour business. I"m thinking of fully supported touring with guest using their own bikes and me and possible an employee for guides. I would like to know from anyone that has experiance in this field, what type of money is there in this? And what type of equipment will I need to get started? Thanks for any help guys...
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not to be too crass, but if someone in that business IS on here, and they WERE making money hand-over-fist, what would be their incentive to share that info with you: to help you become a competitor??
Doesn' t compute for me, but maybe I'm just out in left field...
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Drop a PM to Nathank. He leads organized mountain bike tours in Europe (US citizen who lives in Germany), so he may have a better idea of what you're looking for in terms of money.
Personally, I would say start hitting the bricks and seeing if you have any interest from others to do a bike tour, and then quiz them on prices. I teach indoor cycling classes, and I've just suggested that I'd like to take some of them to Europe, and I've gotten 3 or 4 people responding positively each time I broach the subject.
Koffee
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Well I live in Canada and I know that many of you are from the states so it's not like I would be competition anyway. I'm not asking for exact dollar amounts, just wondering if you could make a decent living doing it. Around where I live there is some beautiful cycling roads with very little traffic so I though that it would be perfect. Nobody else does tours around here so I thought it would work out well.
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Then I guess it's up to you.
Check online with a google search to find other Canadian bike tour companies and see what they charge and what's included. From there, it's just a matter of seeing if the demand is there. I'd start with the local bike stores in the area, and once you get your act together and see what other bike tour companies typically offer and put together a sample package with prices, then the next step would be to put together a simple brochure with price lists and see if you get any interested parties. If you don't, then you'll have to start thinking more globally, with the idea of pulling in the international travellers (USA), and that's going to take a whole marketing plan and strategy that's going to take more time and effort.
Or you could just go work for a bike tour company for a year or two and get the experience and learn how they do it, then start up your own company once you've quit-that could get you pretty far too.
Koffee
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
I owned/operated an adventure touring company some years ago.
I discussed it on the forums a year or two ago on a thread that sounded a lot like yours. Look it up for good reference info from a number of perspectives.
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the advice, I will be doing a little research here soon. I'm thinking of doing something small scale this summer, just with some friends we are going to go on a 10 day tour with me leading, of course I won't be getting paid to lead, but at least I'm getting some experiance with that type of thing.
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
I put together a tour for our local bike club to the Loire Valley and TdF this next July and I am glad I didn't attempt to do so for a profit. Even with hooking up with a professional tour company and telling them what we wanted only about 1 out of 10 interested parties has actually ponied up the funds to go. If we get a dozen I will be happy. You will be amazed at the "interest" of folks right up until the time they need to cough up the funds. Smartest (luckiest) thing I did was turn it over to a pro shortly after getting started. No liability that way.
BTW, we still have some open spots if you are interested in a couple of weeks in the Loire Valley and Paris during the last half of July. Or are you simply "interested"?
(锕侊箒)~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Very true... If I ever decided to do a tour or organized trip of some sort, I'd advertise my butt off and require an up front payment of about a third of the total cost of the trip. Then a bit closer to the trip, I would require the second third, and just before the trip (within like 3 weeks, I'd require the final third). If they ponied up the cash, then you'd know they were serious.
