"Have
coffee in Dublin at 11 and walk in Stephen's
Green
and you'll be in heaven."
You've
replayed the words of that old song over
and
over in your head for years. In fact,
all your
life,
you've dreamt of seeing the Emerald Isle, of
spending
long evenings in Irish pubs, sipping Guinness
and
engaging in lively conversation.
The
only thing that has kept you from making your
dreams
come true is money. After all the
monthly bills
are
paid, you never seem to have enough left over to
afford
a trip to Dublin.
But
money need no longer be an obstacle. You
can
arrange
to see Ireland free -- maybe even make a bit of
money
in the bargain.
Cruise
lines, airlines, tour companies, and hotels
will
gladly accommodate you free of charge -- even put
cash
in your pocket to boot -- if you promise to bring
them
a certain amount of business in return.
You
don't have to be an experienced tour leader.
You
don't need any experience as a salesman.
The only
job
requirements are enthusiasm and a desire to see the
world.
The
possibilities are endless. You could
lead a
tour
of Ireland's green, green countryside and ancient
ruins. You could lead an art tour of northern Italy.
A
garden tour of Britain. A river cruise
in New
Guinea. An archeological expedition to Easter Island.
A
family train tour of France. A hiking
trip in the
Alps. A castles and wine cruise of Germany. A tour of
rural
Japan, visiting teahouses and farmhouses.
A
cycling
adventure in Scotland. A luxury yacht
charter
in
the Greek Isles.
And
as the leader of the tour, you travel for
free.
Making
a business of biking
Peter
Costello did it. He had been working
restoring
antique furniture in Baltimore, Maryland.
It
was
a steady living, but what Peter really enjoyed was
riding
his bicycle and traveling. If only
someone
would
pay me to ride my bike and travel around the
world,
he thought. Because he could find no one
willing
to do so, he decided to arrange it for himself.
After
a vacation to Scotland, his future was
determined. He would lead bicycle tours through the
green
and rolling Scottish hills.
Peter
asked a former executive of a bicycle
touring
company in Vermont to act as consultant.
Scotland
was the perfect place to begin the business,
not
only because Peter (whose family was from Scotland)
knew
the country, but also because the market was wide
open. In fact, no one else in the business was
offering
bicycle tours in Scotland.
Peter
knew bicycling, and he knew Scotland.
But
he
didn't know anything about starting a business or
leading
a tour. As Peter explains, "I took
a crash
course
in Business 101."
"The
touring is the easy part," he says.
"All of
my
tours begin and end in Edinburgh. We
take off down
the
road, supported by a van, exploring beautiful
countryside. We travel about 40 miles a day, and then
spend
the nights in comfortable, homey bed and
breakfasts. That's easy.
"The hard part is the
marketing."
Peter
handles all of the marketing himself from an
office
in Baltimore. He advertises in major
bicycling
publications
and tries to generate business through
travel
agents.
Peter
has been quite successful. His amateur
operation,
Peter Costello Ltd., P.O. Box 23490,
Baltimore,
MD 21203; (410) 685-6918) has grown into a
full-fledged
business. He employs two other tour
leaders
and leads 17 tours a year. Peter
attributes
his
success to two things: first, he was able to find a
niche
in the market; and second, he keeps his tours
competitively
priced.
Keeping
it low key
Peter's
tour operation has grown into a big
business. He is making enough money to support himself
and
two employees. To get to this point,
Peter has
devoted
himself completely to the company. It
has
become
his livelihood and his favorite pastime.
But
it doesn't have to be that way. You can
travel
for free as a tour leader -- and still maintain
your
regular job and home life. It doesn't
take a lot
of
time or energy to arrange one tour a year, for
example.
But
it still works in much the same way. As
Peter
explained,
the most difficult part is the advertising
and
marketing. How do you convince four or
five other
people
to pay you to act as their tour guide? We'll
tell
you, step by step.
How
it works
The
first step is to decide where you want to go.
This
should be the easiest task of all. After
all,
this
is the reason for arranging the tour in the first
place
-- to allow you to live out your life's dream of
seeing
another part of the world.
Once
you know where you want to go, do extensive
research
on the area. Call the tourist board and
the
embassy
for that country and request all the brochures
and
literature they have available on hotels,
restaurants,
nightclubs, transportation, sightseeing,
and
local customs.
Spend
a day or two at the library, poring over
travel
guides and reference books. The best
general
reference
guides available include Fielding's, Fodor's,
and
Frommer's (which include the Dollarwise series on
budget
travel). Also read Lonely Planet's
guides and
the
series known as Let's Go. If your
library doesn't
stock
these books, you can order them (as well as a
catalog
of worldwide travel guidebooks) from Forsyth
Travel
Library, 9154 W. 57th St., P.O. Box 2975,
Shawnee
Mission, KS 66201, or the Traveler's Bookstore,
22
W. 52nd St., New York, NY 10019.
Also
study local maps. Remember, everyone you
bring
with you will look to you for guidance.
Once
you've become familiar with your destination,
pick
something unique about it and plan your tour
around
that theme. It is easier to sell a tour
of the
stately
homes of Britain's aristocracy than it is to
sell
a tour of Britain, period. Look for a
niche in
the
market, something that no one else is doing (or
doing
well).
Next,
plan your itinerary. Choose the hotels
where
you would like to stay, and then contact them to
explain
what you want to do. Ask for special
group
rates
and request that you stay free as the tour
leader.
Do
the same with the airline you wish to fly.
Find
out what restrictions are attached to the cheapest
tickets
available. Usually you have to purchase
special
fare tickets a certain number of days in
advance. Other restrictions involve the length of your
stay
and the days of departure and return.
Make sure
you
know about all of this up front. And
again,
request
that you fly free.
Plan
some sightseeing and evening entertainment,
but
keep some time open. Your group will
want time to
itself.
Make
all of the plans -- but don't make any
reservations. At least, not yet. Wait until you've
gathered
your group together and agreed on a departure
date.
Next,
set a price. This will be the first
question
you are asked when you approach someone about
joining
you on your grand adventure. Figure in
all of
your
costs (airfare, hotels, ground transportation,
sightseeing,
taxes, departure fees, and any meals that
you
plan to include in the package). Take
this total
and
mark it up as much as you think the market will
bear. The lower your costs, the greater your
profits.
You
want to make at least enough to cover all of your
expenses,
including the entire cost of your trip.
Any
money
you make beyond that is an added bonus.
Finding
the people
This
brings us to the most difficult part of the
project:
finding the tour participants.
The
easiest way to do this is to tell everyone you
know
-- everyone you work with, everyone you run into
at
the supermarket, everyone you meet on the subway,
everyone
you play bridge with on Thursday nights --
that
you are planning to lead a seven-day, all-
inclusive
tour of Germany's Bavarian castles (for
example). Tantalize them with tales of Mad King
Ludwig,
who built the country's most beautiful castle,
Neuschwanstein,
the turreted, white creation that Walt
Disney
used as a model for Disneyland. Tell
them about
Linderhof
Castle, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where
the
mad king had the dining room built directly above
the
kitchen and then installed a dining table that
could
be lowered into the kitchen, set by the cooks,
and
then lifted back up to the dining room.
Thus, King
Ludwig
could be waited on at dinner without ever having
to
be bothered by the servants.
Once
you've got them interested, remind them that
group
travel is always cheaper than going it alone;
they'll
save several hundred dollars at least.
Remind
them
also that group travel is much more hassle-free
than
independent travel. Tell them that
you'll arrange
everything. You'll make all the reservations. You'll
check
on all the train schedules. You'll offer
suggestions
for good restaurants. All they have to
do
is
enjoy the experience.
The
other way to find tour participants is to
advertise
for them in travel magazines and newsletters.
It
doesn't cost much to place a small classified ad.
Publications
to try include: International Travel
News,
2120 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818; Transitions
Abroad,
Box 344, Amherst, MA 01004; Travel and Leisure,
American
Express Publishing, 1120 Avenue of the
Americas,
New York, NY 10036; Travel-Holiday, Travel
Publications
Inc., 28 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010;
Conde
Nast Traveler, Conde Nast Publications, 350
Madison
Ave., New York, NY 10017; National Geographic
Traveler,
National Geographic Society, 17th and M
streets
N.W., Washington, DC 20036; the International
Herald
Tribune, Box 309, 63 Long Acre, London WC2E 9JH,
England;
or the Travel Section of The New York Times,
229
W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036. You can
also
place
ads in your local newspapers. Make the
ad
simple. Tell where you're going, when you plan to
depart,
how long you'll be staying, what the trip
includes,
how much it costs, and how to contact you for
more
information.
Another
easy way to advertise is to put up notes
on
bulletin boards at community centers, colleges, and
libraries
in your area. Include the same
information
you
used in your classified ads. This may be
just as
effective,
and it will cost you nothing.
Once
responses begin coming in, create a log of
everyone
who has expressed an interest (either as the
result
of an ad or the result of a chance conversation
at
a bus stop). Contact each person by
phone or by
mail
and make a record of the correspondence.
If you
don't
hear back within a couple of weeks, send another
letter
or make another telephone call.
When
someone does make a reservation, ask him if
he
can suggest anyone else who might be interested.
You'll
find that word-of-mouth referrals will be your
best
source of new clients.
Booking
the trip
Once
you have your group together and you have
determined
an itinerary and a departure date, the next
step
is making the reservations. You can do
this in
two
ways: on your own or with the help of a travel
agent.
If
you go it alone, all of the profit is yours.
If
the tour costs you $2,000 per person and you charge
$3,000
per person, you'll make $1,000 off each tour
participant. If you have five people traveling with
you,
that's $5,000. Assume that you're able
to arrange
for
your airfare and accommodations free of charge (as
the
tour leader), and you're way ahead.
You'll spend
several
hundred dollars at your destination on your
personal
expenses; the rest of the $5,000 will be clear
profit. Plus, of course, you're getting the trip
free.
Not
a bad deal at all.
The
disadvantage to all of this is that you alone
are
responsible for everything. If you don't
know what
you're
doing -- if you've never dealt with airlines and
hotel
managers and bus drivers and taxi cab drivers and
translators
before -- you might be in for a rude
awakening. Your dream trip overseas might turn into
one
huge headache. It is possible to go it
alone. But
it
may not be practical.
So
consider affiliating yourself with a travel
agency. True, the agency will take its cut of the
profits
-- but in exchange, it will share with you its
wealth
of experience. It will tell you whether
it's
better
to land in Beijing, tour China, and exit through
Hong
Kong or to land in Hong Kong, visit China, and
return
to Hong Kong for the flight home. It can
tell
you
which Rhine River cruises are a delight and which
are
taking water. It can help you choose
hotels. It
can
tell you about special health requirements at your
destination. It can offer tips on the climate and how
to
dress. It can tell you whether it's
better to take
a
bus at your destination or to hail a taxi.
When
looking for a travel agency to deal with,
your
first question should be, "What commission do you
pay
to outside agents?" (That is what you will be
considered.)
If the agency won't pay you a commission
(and
a sizeable commission at that) for the business
you
bring in, find another agency.
The
second most important question involves free
tickets. Who gets them? You or the agency? Travel
agents
receive free airline tickets and vouchers for
free
hotel stays all the time in exchange for the
volume
of business they bring the airlines and the
hotels. But make sure that these tickets are also
available
to outside agents.
Ask
about other outside agents working for the
agency. How many of these agents organize tours? What
kinds
of tours do they organize?
And
inquire about support for outside agents.
Will
you be given a manual? Reservation
forms?
Guidebooks? Will the agency maintain records for you?
And
shop around. Don't settle for less than
you
think
you should be getting. If you don't come
out of
the
deal with at least a free trip, something's not
right.
Book
with a tour company -- another alternative
If
you're intimidated at the thought of making all
the
arrangements on your own, but you don't like the
idea
of having to share your profits with a travel
agency,
you have a third alternative. Decide on
the
tour
you want to lead, and then book it through a tour
company
that offers free trips to individuals who
reserve
a certain number of spaces on their package
trips.
Globus-Gateway,
95-25 Queens Blvd., Rego Park, NY
11374,
for example, offers a free trip for anyone who
books
16 people on any of its tours to Europe and one-
half
off a trip for anyone who books eight people on a
trip
to Europe.
Saga
Holidays, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02166,
offers
one free trip for 20 bookings.
Destinations
include
Europe, Asia, the South Pacific, and South
America.
Travel
Plans International, P.O. Box 3875, Oak
Brook,
IL 60521, offers one free trip for 20 bookings
on
a safari to Africa.
Toucan
Adventure Tours, 1142 Manhattan Ave., CP
#416,
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, offers one free trip
for
12 bookings on a tour to Mexico.
Newmans
Tours, Suite 305, 10351 Santa Monica
Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90025, offers discounted trips
for
10 bookings on trips to New Zealand.
The
following companies also give complimentary
trips
to anyone who signs on five or six other people
to
travel with them:
*
Ambassadors World, 5601 Roanne Way, Suite 314,
P.O.
Box 9751, Greensboro, NC 27429
*
Bryan World Tours, P.O. Box 4156, Topeka, KS
66604
*
Friendship Tours Inc., P.O. Box 2526, Shawnee
Mission,
KS 66201
*
Travel Careers and Tours, P.O. Box 91102,
International
Airport, Los Angeles, CA 90009
In
addition, almost all major cruise lines offer
free
tickets to anyone who can sign on 15 paying
passengers.
Most
major tour companies around the world will
offer
terms very similar to these. Unlike the
American
companies,
most are unwilling to publicly advertise
their
terms. They want to meet you or discuss
the
situation
first, but the net result will invariably be
along
the lines discussed here. These are
practically
world-wide
industry standard compensation rates, and
not
usually negotiable.
Trip
tips
You
and five strangers are sitting in the airport
lounge. They answered your ads in travel magazines,
and
now they are counting on you to take them on a
memorable
tour of the castles of Bavaria. How can
you
make
sure that all the tour participants feel like
they're
getting their money's worth -- and still have a
good
time yourself?
Well,
you will have to work a bit. After all,
these
people have paid you money. Following
are a few
tips
to make sure all goes smoothly.
1.
Take charge. The old saying that too
many
cooks
spoil the soup applies here. As the
leader, you
should
make all the arrangements and all the
decisions
-- within limits, of course. Ask for
input
from
the group, but don't waste time debating every
move.
2.
Be flexible. Itineraries are made to be
broken. Don't be more concerned about following your
original
schedule than you are about enjoying the trip.
Take
advantage of opportunities as they present
themselves.
3.
Make sure that no one feels left out or
overlooked. Ask if everyone is comfortable in his
room. If his luggage arrived safely. If there is
anything
special he would like to do or see.
Don't
ever
let anyone eat alone during an unscheduled meal
(unless
he prefers to do so, of course).
4.
Make time for yourself. Promise your
group
your
undivided attention from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., for
example,
but make everyone know that he's on his own
after
that (except for one planned night out).
For
more information
For
more on traveling as a tour leader, read
Travel
for Fun and Profit by Larry King, available from
Dreams
Unlimited Inc., P.O. Box 20667, Seattle,
Washington
98102; (206)322-4304. The cost is
$12.95.
Leading
a tour with a twist
We've
a unique suggestion for anyone who loves
boating,
loves to travel, and is ready for a change in
lifestyle. It requires a little more commitment and
investment
than organizing a single tour a year, but
the
payoff is potentially much greater as well.
If you
follow
up on our idea, you could earn a comfortable
living
-- and spend your days floating down the
riverways
of Burgundy, France.
The
idea is to lead guided tours of the French
countryside
-- in your own passenger barge. As we
mentioned
already, this is not something to be
undertaken
lightly. And it is not something to be
undertaken
by a total novice. You should have a bit
of
experience
in the boating industry.
But
don't let these words of caution discourage
you. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime,
a
chance
to live out your dreams.
Dennis
Sherman did it. He had been crewing on
boats,
primarily as cook, for years. Mainly
interested
in
barging, his knowledge of the industry served him
well
when it came time to take the plunge and purchase
his
own passenger barge.
"The
barging industry is small and close- knit,"
he
explains. "If you want to get into
it, your best
source
of information, especially about boats for sale,
is
word-of-mouth."
Dennis'
first piece of advice is that you
shouldn't
try to buy a working barge and convert it
into
a pleasure craft. Too timely and costly,
he says.
Neither
should you try to build a barge from scratch --
that
is, not unless you have nearly unlimited capital
to
invest.
The
remaining option is to purchase a barge
already
operating as a pleasure craft. Without
contacts
in the industry, it's paramount to begin by
contacting
a barge agent. Dennis recommends Joe
Parfaitt,
Chantier du Nivernais, 89000 Mailly-La-
Ville,
France; tel. (33-86) 40-44-77. Parfaitt
has his
own
shipyard. In addition to barge sales, he
handles
conversions When you've found a boat you're
interested
in buying, the next step is arranging the
purchase. Find an independent lawyer who is
experienced
with Americans doing business overseas.
Dennis
consulted Catherine Kessedjian, 27 rue des
Plantes,
75014 Paris, France; tel. (33-1) 45-40-86-27.
Experienced
with handling the details of setting up a
corporation
in France, according to Dennis, dealing
with
Catherine "is like one-stop shopping," because she
is
capable in all areas.
Dennis
set up a French corporation to handle the
barge
operation and an American company to handle the
marketing. This enabled him, with the barge operating
under
a French corporation, to arrange financing in
France.
Dennis
chose France as his location, because
that's
where the barge that he wanted to buy was
operating. But there are other reasons to choose
France. The country is striving to attract new small
business,
and therefore, any new venture in France is
eligible
for tax-free status for the first three years
and
considerable tax breaks the next two years.
The
capital investment
How
much does a venture such as this cost?
Dennis
estimates
$250,000, including purchase of the barge,
any
improvements, first-year operating expenses, and
professional
fees. True, that's hardly free. But
think
of the return. And after the initial
investment
is
made, if your barge company is successful, you'll
not
only be able to travel the French countryside for
free
for the rest of your life, but you'll also have a
comfortable
annual income. And the equity in the
barge.
Dennis'
barge, called the Papillon, travels the
Burgundy
region of France. Spring and early
summer, it
cruises
in the Nivernais; in June, the barge moves to
the
tree-lined waters of the Burgundy Canal; in late
summer,
it cruises the River Seine and the Canal du
Centre,
through the heart of the vineyards of Santenay;
in
the fall, the barge heads back to the Nivernais. It
makes
one-week cruises for a 33-week season.
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