19 Tour Company Success Stories

Hi all! My name is Alexandra Kenin and I run a tour business called Urban Hiker San Francisco, or Urban Hiker SF.

I’ve sold over 8,000 copies since the book came out in November 2016. While working on the book has been fun, and I’m working on a second book, Urban Trails East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, and other cities east of San Francisco), this is more of a branding play than a money maker. I’ve only made $5,000 total for the book for the countless hours I spent on it.

Bonjour! My name is Claire Robinson; I am French, and I am the founder of StructurInfo. My main business is Travel Blogging. But I am not your typical travel blogger. I do not work with sponsors or tourism boards. I select and pay for my own trips. I will not share with you how ‘to be paid to travel’. However, I do travel a lot and enjoy writing about it :-)

Pre-quarantine, my revenue averaged $9,000 per month. And 2020 started with huge growth before all travels stopped. I am still working hard to deliver practical information because travel will start again, and I love it when customers share how much fun they had planned their trip with my guides and how wonderful their road trips were, for example in New Zealand:

Manoj: Kamlesh Ramchandani and I (Manoj Tulsani) are the founders of Rayna Tours and Travels. Fueled by our deepest interest in travel and entrepreneurship, we kicked off our business journey a decade ago from a small travel counter inside a five-star hotel in Dubai.

Kamlesh: We’ve been in the industry for over a decade and have now become a niche provider of destination management services in Dubai. As a one-stop, customer-oriented business for all travel needs, our main organizational goal is to design and craft travel services and packages in such a way that each of them ideally responds to the dynamic market trends as well as our clients’ specific travel requirements. We offer our full suite of travel solutions through our wholly-owned Rayna Group.

My name is Mark Johnson. In 2017, I launched Hobnail Trekking Co., an adventure travel company that specializes in treks to Mt. Everest Base Camp and other epic locales in the Himalayas, as perhaps the least qualified person on the planet to do so. By the end of 2019, we will have sent 23 Americans on this life-changing journey.

I am Nune Tatunts from Yerevan, Armenia, a small landlocked country in the Caucasus region. The Caucasus is sandwiched between Russia, Turkey, and Iran. My background education is tourism. In 2014 I started my work in the Arara Tour. That time it was a 1 person company, an idea, founders, and me.

Well, 2020 was crucially bad for tourism because of COVID-19. While 2019 was quite fruitful, the company made around $13,000 in revenue per month. Doubling 2018’s revenue, which can be considered as a great success.

Front Desk USA is a full color customized map publication distributed at no charge to the hospitality (hotels) industry. With over 1,000 hotels currently using Front Desk USA maps nationwide and tens of thousands being viewed by hotel guests each day, Front Desk USA is the, “go-to” visitor information guide for hotels.

Front Desk USA maps is a unique business opportunity that operates primarily in the hospitality industry. Hotels love our maps because their guests need local information that is important to their visit. Restaurants love our maps because marketing directly to the hundreds of hotel guests each night is good for the bottom line. We rely on local representatives/publishers to promote the map, distribute the map and find sponsors for the mobile guide and printed versions of a larger map in specific areas. Publishers can make up to $10,000 a year on each map they publish. Multiple maps areas are common for our publishers with the average around five maps.

Hi, I’m Jessica Baumgart, and in 2017 I founded Delicious Denver Food Tours to connect Denver locals and visitors to my city’s amazing food scene.

When I first launched the business, I was guiding every food tour myself. By month three, I had broken even and was turning a profit. This was also when I started hiring my first tour guide. Now 1.5 years into running the business, I manage a team of tour guides, and the business is producing $20,000/month in revenue.

If you have ever met me (which is pretty unlikely), then you probably learned relatively quickly that I’m really into airplanes. And by ‘really’ I mean borderline obsessed. My name is Corey Rust, and I own the Troutdale, Oregon based air tour business Envi Adventures.

Now, our best month was over $30,000 in revenue, and that is only in our second year. For a dumb guy like me, it makes me happy to know that I’m providing a service that people from all over the world are interested in. Not only that, but we have been able to generate a brand that people are beginning to recognize and connect with on a different level. Personally, I think that’s the most exciting part.

My name is Joe Griffith and I’m the founder and owner of Wander New Mexico Food Tours. We offering walking food tours of downtown Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Enchiladas, posole, and a Silver Coin margarita at Del Charro, a stop on our downtown walking food tour

We are 3 young Italian travelers in love with eagerness to explore the world and their country who think that traveling should be allowed to everybody, despite how big the pocket is.

I’m Matt Wilson and my co-founder Jared O’Toole and I own Under30Experiences, a travel company for people aged 21-35. We run small group travel excursions around the world to destinations including Costa Rica, Iceland, Thailand, Greece, and US National Parks.

We’ve been named on Inc Magazine’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in America and number 198 on Financial Times 1000 list of America's Fastest-Growing Companies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were closing in on $5M in revenue and plan to be back to that level and more soon.

Hi, I’m Nico Jacquart and I’m the CEO and Co-founder of Secret Food Tours, a global food tour company with tours in more than 50 cities worldwide.

Our most popular tour is Paris Food Tour where you will taste some of the best chocolates and macarons in Paris, learn how to pick some traditional French cheeses and pair them with wine. You will also visit one of the nicest areas of Paris, Montmartre.

Paul Melhus is the CEO and founder of ToursByLocals, one of the top suppliers of private tours worldwide.

ToursByLocals offers exceptional travel experiences in more than 190 countries worldwide. It connects discerning travelers looking for customized private tours with handpicked tour guides.

This company now operates in more than 130 countries with 1700 carefully chosen tour guides.

They have provided their guide partners while serving more than 220,000 customers.

Read the full story on medium.com ➜

In the late 1980s, Darrell and Geoff Manchester established Intrepid as a brand new way of exploring the world.

Intrepid Travel offers more than 1,150 trips on all seven continents that are sustainable and experience-rich.

They didn't set out to build the biggest purpose-led adventure travel brand in the world, but they have done so now, by generating $43 million in annual revenue.

They are the biggest adventure tour operator in the world, operating a network of 26 DMCs and a nonprofit foundation.

Since 2002, their nonprofit organization, The Intrepid Foundation, has raised over AUD 12 million for 135 charities worldwide.

Read the full story on forbes.com ➜

Oliver Dlouhý created Kiwi.com, which identifies inexpensive travel options that others cannot.

Kiwi.com is a top travel technology company with its global headquarters in the Czech Republic and more than 1,500 employees.

This company's cutting-edge Virtual Interlining algorithm enables users to combine flights on legacy and low-cost airlines into a single itinerary.

Customers can find better route options and prices on Kiwi.com by using its 2 billion daily price checks across 95% of all global flight content.

The website of Kiwi.com receives 100 million daily searches, and more than 50,000 seats are sold daily.

Watch the full interview on youtube.com ➜

Mark and Amy Trim, life partners & business owners, founded RoundAbout Travel in 2008 as Australia's first round-the-world airfare specialist.

Their journey started in August 2008 when they first got their license amid the GFC. They sold about $900,000 in the first year and have since increased that to an annual turnover of over $6 million.

Their head office is in Norwood, South Australia, and they operate as a national online travel agency. RoundAbout Travel offers both economies & business class trips around the world.

Mark started this online travel company at 23, quitting his job as a travel agent. After 14 years, they have expanded to 5 brands and now have more than $50 million annual revenue.

Read the full story on blogtyrant.com ➜

Founded by Meredith Hill, Vanessa McGovern, and Jennifer Cochrane, Gifted Travel Network is a cutting-edge host agency that supports business owners in repurposing their love of travel into a successful enterprise and fulfilling lifestyle.

Gifted Travel Network promotes travel entrepreneurship success by offering exemplary service, award-winning professional development programs, and a supportive community.

The founders obtained a $100,000 loan from the bank to kickstart the business.

In 2019, they generated $30 million in sales from travel reservations made using their credentials.

They leverage a strong network of 311 capable travel advisors to assist their valued clients, and their revenue model is commission based.

Listen to the full podcast on mixergy.com ➜