Start a Tour Company:
Intensive Online Workshop
Join a vibrant community, and take your tour guiding business from rainy-day idea to reality in this intensive workshop-based incubator program!
Rolling Admission. Join when convenient for you.
30+ Hours of self-paced recorded modules + optional LIVE weekly gatherings.
Taught by TripSchool’s Mitch Bach & Alan Armijo + a team of experts and real tour operators.
Entrepreneurship is hard to do alone. Come join our live, workshop-based community of people creating tour companies together. If you’ve ever thought about starting your own tour company, but didn’t know where to begin, join us for our small-group business incubator program, where we’ll guide your early-stage idea into fruition!
Why should I do this?
Instead of waiting for a company to hire you, creating your own day-tour or multi-day tour company allows you to deliver the kinds of travel experiences you want to share with others.
Starting your own tour company gives you the power to grow an income that’s not dependent on struggling larger companies offering you work.
In this course, you’ll get the information, resources and advice in weeks that we’ve spent over 20 years amassing!
Is this for me?
Have you dreamed of owning your own business, but felt overwhelmed with the steps you need to take, or never had the time?
Do you have a passion for creating your own travel experiences, but want to develop the business in a group workshop, to receive feedback and support?
Give me a brief overview!
We’ve developed an intense “tour business incubator” program that guides you through the entire process of developing a tour company, from creating a product, brand, and website to sales, marketing, and all the messy legal and logistical hurdles.
You’ll be taught and encouraged by the TripSchool team, and a variety of real-world expert instructors, like tax attorneys, MBAs and of course tour operators who have been down your road and can share their stories and advice.
Community-driven classes.
The most important parts of our class is not the instruction: it’s the community of likeminded souls coming together, guided by TripSchool instructors and a variety of real-world tour operators, web designers, tourism marketers, and more!
Tourpreneur Approved.
Since its inception we have been huge fans of Shane Whaley’s Tourpreneur Podcast and vibrant Facebook community. We are huge fans of his work, and extremely humbled to become the first entrepreneurship program in his Tourpreneur Approved directory, with a review from Shane himself, who took our course in June.
“I have often said on the podcast that you can’t go to school to learn how to build a tour business. I now believe the How To Start a Tour Business online course has proved me wrong. This course was intense, but the payoff is well worth the time and money invested. […] Honest and authentic. I rarely endorse courses and products so when I do, you know it is the real deal.”
Read the full review
“I have often said on the podcast that you can’t go to school to learn how to build a tour business. I now believe the How To Start a Tour Business 3 week online course designed and taught by Mitch Bach and Alan Armijo has proved me wrong. I signed up to this course (and yes I paid full price) because I have a great idea for tour business but unsure if it has legs. Also as the host of Tourpreneur I am always looking to learn more about the process of building a tour from idea to execution. This course was intense, several hours a day online for 3 weeks but the payoff is well worth the time and money invested. They teach topics such as how to build and design your tour, the business of tour operating, how to market your tour, how to brand it and much more. I especially enjoyed how Mitch and Alan brought in other tour operators to talk to us students through real-life situations. There was no sugar coating here, the speakers were all brutally honest about the struggles they have faced in getting off the ground and sustaining their tour businesses. Many of you know that I have zero tolerance for ’empty suits’ and savvy information marketeers with their funnels and promises of riches. So I was smiling when in the 10th minute of module 1, Mitch warned us that ‘if you are in this for the money, find a new job. This had better be a passion play or this is going to fizzle.’ Honest and authentic. I rarely endorse courses and products so when I do, you know it is the real deal.”
Course Outline
Module 1 – Designing & Delivering an Incredible Tour Product
Class 1 Introduction to the Local Tours & Attractions Industry, and Tourism after COVID
If you come from other areas of the travel industry, or from another career altogether, we’ll break down very clearly how this particular segment of the travel industry works, and explain the varieties of ways to run a business in this space. We’ll address the challenges and opportunities ahead for a post-COVID industry by looking at new guidelines and predictions for how travel will change.
Class 2 Types of Tours + Discovering & Developing your tour product
There are dozens of different kinds of tours: what works for your region? What tours, historically before COVID, were selling? We’ll share incredible tools for finding and developing a tour experience.
Class 3 Tour Experience Design I: Researching, mapping, and organizing your ideas
This is the fun part! We’ll give you a variety of tools for crafting the perfect tour experience, and guide you through creating an experience that works.
Class 4 Tour Experience Design II: Voice, storytelling, wow moments, technology, and presentation
The actual tour experience is absolutely everything. Your product is nothing without top-notch delivery, and this is what TripSchool is known for: helping you deliver a knock-out travel experience using our special blend of storytelling, technology and wow moments.