Gather and Go with Brian Jewell

Sometimes your best protection from a travel disaster is as thin as a sheet of paper.

Jeff Ment believes that having well-crafted legal documents can make the difference between a peaceful problem resolution and a lengthy legal nightmare. And he would know — after working as a travel agent, a tour guide and an airline salesman, he found his place in the world as a travel attorney.

On this episode, Jeff shares the most common legal mistakes most tour operators and travel professionals are making. He breaks down the documents you need to have in place, how to handle emergency situations and what simple habits could save you from legal headaches. Plus, we have travel news about the growing trend of small-group tours and a Hot Minute about what your email habits reveal about your character.

Jeff had a lot of insight about what makes a good legal document — and what doesn’t. Here’s what he had to say about why you shouldn’t skimp on them:

A poorly drafted one isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. And one that doesn’t have the right language for the state that you want to interpret it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on…. Copying somebody else’s, doing it off of the internet, trying to make your own, are certainly going to save you a few bucks in the near term. But may cost you a lot more in the long run.

Plus you’ll hear his thoughts on:

Contact Jeff Ment at [email protected].

Register for A Kentucky Nightcap and NTA Travel Exchange at ntatravelexchange.com.

2:19 — Travel News: Small-group touring continues to grow

3:31 — A Kentucky Nightcap you won’t want to miss

7:42 — How Jeff Ment went from tour guide to travel attorney

8:54 — What does a travel lawyer do, anyway?

12:19 — Why tour operators are in a unique legal position

17:24 — Are your release waivers any good

20:03 — Why your terms and conditions need some attention

24:22 — What kind of contracts should you have with your vendors?

30:31 — What to do if you have an accident on a tour

34:18 — How your website could get you in legal trouble

36:42 — Staying compliant with ADA regulations

49:11 — Hot Minute: What do your email habits reveal about your character?

See the full interview with Ali on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

Is recruiting a “pied piper” the key to building successful group trips?

Ali Raymer things so. After years of leading student trips as a high school English teacher, she launched Peace & Pearl Travel Co. and stumbled upon a recipe for partnering with community luminaries to create meaningful group trips that rack up big sales.

On this episode, Ali shares her formula for identifying great pied pipers in places you might not expect. She breaks down her marketing approach and shares some warning signs about kinds of partners to avoid. Plus, we have travel news about a new “zero emissions” Arctic cruise ship a Hot Minute about what you’re really selling when you sell travel.

Ali opened up her playbook and shared some counter-intuitive insights about what kids of people make good pied pipers… and which don’t. Here’s what she had to say about why small followings can bring big results:

I really think it’s important to find someone that’s very likable and has that sphere of influence. Not everybody has to have thousands and thousands of followers on Instagram. It’s kind of helpful to think about something that’s a little bit niche, like maybe they have a niche thing that they have this audience for, and that they can kind of be the expert and teach.

Plus you’ll hear her thoughts on:

Learn more about Peace and Pearl Travel Co. at peaceandpearltravel.com.

Follow Ali and Peace and Pear Travel Co. on Instagram.

Connect with Ali on LinkedIn.

7:37 — Ali Raymer’s journey from teaching to travel

8:48 — What is a “pied piper” trip and how does it work?

10:57 — What kind of person makes a good pied piper?

12:25 — Why smaller audiences can be better for promoting group trips

17:04 — How to find pied pipers… and convince them to travel

19:33 — What pied pipers hope to achieve in group trips

23:44 — How to build a successful trip for a pied-piper group

25:42 — How to brand and market pied-piper trips

28:19 — The ideal size of a pied-piper trip

30:14 — Can you charge more for a trip with a “celebrity”?

32:34 — Selecting destinations for pied-piper group trips

33:41 — Ali’s go-to marketing plan for group trips

48:14 — Hot Minute: What are you really selling when you sell travel?

See the full interview with Ali on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

Group travel makes a massive impact on America’s economy — and we’ve got the data to prove it.

On this episode of Gather and Go, Fred Ferguson and Lew Myers of the American Bus Association share the results of a brand new economic impact study that demonstrates just how important group travel really is to destinations and businesses across America. They break down how the market has grown in the last 12 months, the biggest challenges facing the group tourism industry, and how travel pros can use this new data to help move the industry forward.

This episode is brought to you by the American Bus Association.

Learn more about the American Bus Association and download the economic impact report at buses.org.

See the full interview with James and Stephanie on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

Douglas Quinby knows what profitable tour businesses have in common.

After decades studying group tourism, first as a journalist and then as a researcher, Douglas launched the tour education community Arival. And he and the team recently finished one of the most comprehensive studies of the multiday tour industry ever undertaken.

On this episode, Douglas shares the major findings of that study, including the surprising traits that the most tour companies have in common. He shares insights into which destinations are the most popular and the most common challenge tourism entrepreneurs face. Plus, we have travel news about a new concept in tour refund policies and a Hot Minute about how your work habits may be impacting your partners’ bottom lines.

Douglas had lots of intel about what successful tour companies do right — and where others struggle. Here’s what he had to say about the key to profitable operations:

There’s a very clear correlation between profitability and the number of products that were offered…. Larger operators were actually the least profitable. And the operators that reported the highest overall level of profitability were those operators that offered one or two different product types. In other words, focus beats breadth.

Plus you’ll hear his thoughts on:

Learn more about Arival at arival.travel.

Contact Douglas Quniby at [email protected].

Find our Group Travel Essentials series at grouptravelleader.com/essentials.

2:18 — Travel News: Major tour company offers flexible refund tiers

3:53 — Essential intel for growing group travel companies

8:00 — How Douglas Quinby went from travel writer to tourism researcher

9:58 — Why Arival is growing its focus on multiday tour operators

15:55 — Survey says: Which destinations are tour operators’ top sellers?

21:55 — Why the tour industry struggles with tech implementation

24:46 — What the most profitable operators have in common

29:40 — What’s the most popular group size today?

31:58 — What do the most popular tours cost today?

35:30 — Why operational discipline is key to profitability

49:14 — Hot Minute: Are your work habits costing your partners money?

See the full interview with Douglas on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

For James Redcay and Stephanie Tiboris, music is serious business.

James and Stephanie lead MidAmerica Productions, a performance travel company that Stephanie’s father founded decades ago. They have helped thousands of young musicians perform at Carnegie Hall and other high-profile venues around the world. And they have seen firsthand how staying true to their passion has helped their business grow.

On this episode, James and Stephanie share how their commitment to serious music has been seriously successful. They give insight into how they have scaled their business without compromising on core principles and give insights on how they have built a great travel product by serving a niche audience.” Plus, we have travel news about a rebound in visitation from Canada and a Hot Minute about the way you’re doing travel conferences wrong.

James and Stephanie had lots of insight about how their focus on high-quality musical experiences has helped them build a travel company customers love. Here’s what Stephanie had to say about the importance of operating with excellence:

Our focus is always the music. And we take the responsibility of bringing amateur musicians on the stage of Carnegie Hall and around the world very, very seriously…. When you’re singing in the most famous concert halls in the world, and we’re giving this incredible opportunity. We take it very seriously.

Plus you’ll hear their thoughts on:

Learn more about MidAmerica Productions at midamerica-music.com.

1:20 — Travel News: Canadian travel to the U.S. is starting to rebound

3:03 — Meet us on the road this fall

7:48 — How James and Stephanie put performers on stage at Carnegie Hall

9:42 — Where classical music meets tourism

11:56 — Serious travel for serious musicians

16:58 — The power of long-running relationships

24:54 — Building success with a niche travel audience

29:09 — Growing in scale while preserving quality

33:48 — Turning your personal passion into travel success

47:55 — Hot Minute: Are you doing travel conferences wrong?

See the full interview with James and Stephanie on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

The post One Company’s Secret to World Class Trips appeared first on The Group Travel Leader | Group Tour and Travel Destinations, Attractions & More.

Artificial intelligence could revolutionize your tour business… if you’re willing to let it.

Kelsey Tonner believes believes AI could be the greatest tool ever developed for travel entrepreneurs. As the founder of Guest Focus, he has helped hundreds of tour and experience operators launch and scale successful businesses. And he’s going all in on artificial intelligence as a core operations tool.

Kelsey returns to this episode of the podcast to talk about the power of smart AI implementation. He shares practical tips to help you start — or level up — your travel company’s AI systems. He shares insights into why your current AI use may not be working and shares a free resource for helping you build your travel company’s “AI brain.” Plus, you’ll hear Brian’s thoughts on why you can’t afford to ignore artificial intelligence any longer.

Kelsey had a lot of great insight about what travel companies can do to better leverage artificial intelligence. Here’s what he had to say about the biggest AI mistake most operators are making:

“We’re not giving it near enough context. You may be just giving it some snippets, but if you take a step back and think of everything that’s in your brain, everything that about your organization, your goals, a lot of that context is pretty relevant to getting the best possible results.”

Get Kelsey Tonner’s AI Brain Builder Prompt at guestfocus.com/gathergo.  

4:43 — Why Kelsey Tonner is going all in on AI

9:14 — The state of AI in travel businesses today

12:32 — Secrets to building AI systems that actually work

18:09 — The most powerful AI feature you’re probably not using

26:29 — Can you trust AI companies with your business data?

31:58 — How much does AI implementation cost?

35:48 — Building an AI brain for your travel business

52:41 — Why you can’t afford to avoid AI any longer

See the full interview with Kelsey on our YouTube channel.

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Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

What if you could ensure every tour departs with a full load of clients?

Harish Shroff believes it’s possible to sell every seat on every departure. He has helped Indus Travel scale up to become one of Canada’s premier world wide tour companies. And he knows how to help your company do the same.

Harish joins this episode of the podcast to talk about the systems that help tour companies scale from from mom-and-pop to power players. He also shares sales and marketing techniques to help fill every seat on your next tour. Plus, we have news about an AI initiative to prevent air travel delays, a special free resource for new travel planners and a Hot Minute about the problems in your travel organization that tech can’t solve.

Harish had a lot of great insight about what it takes to grow a travel company. Here’s what he had to say about the work required to take your operation to the next level:

Learn more about Indus Travel at indus.travel.

Get Harish’s book “Mastering the Art of Sales” on Amazon.

Get your free copy of Travel Free and Bring Your Friends here.

1:24 — Travel News: Using AI to prevent air traffic delays

2:48 — News From Us: A great resources for first-time group travel planners

6:08 — How Harish Shroff found his place in group travel

8:40 — Why Indus Travel has grown while others are struggling

11:19 — Building a tour company people want to work for

13:20 — The systems required to scale a tour company up

16:05 — How quickly can your travel company grow?

18:28 — Secrets for filling more seats on your departures

21:42 — Which promotional channels are most effective for selling tours?

25:15 — Instilling trust in your travelers

28:48 — Leveraging the scale of your travel partners

41:43 — Hot Minute: Can AI fix what’s broken in your travel business?

See the full interview with Harish on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

It’s vacation season, so this week’s episode is a little different.

I’m taking some time away with my family, but I didn’t want to leave you without an episode of Gather and Go. So instead of our usual format, I’m bringing you a featured conversation with returning guest Stacy Barry of Sharin’ the South.

Stacy has participated in hundreds of familiarization tours throughout her career, both as a tour operator and as a destination partner. She joins the podcast to share practical advice for getting the most out of FAM tours — whether you’re hosting one or attending one. Along the way, she explains the biggest mistakes people make, how to build stronger industry relationships and why being intentional about every FAM tour matters.

Stacy has attended enough FAM tours to know the difference between ones that create lasting business relationships and ones that waste everyone’s time. Throughout the conversation, she shares practical lessons for both destination hosts and travel professionals looking to make every FAM tour more productive.

Plus, she shares:

Follow Stacy Barry on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Sharin’ the South Tours.

See the full interview with Stacey on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

The tourism industry has spent years talking about workforce shortages. But what if part of the solution starts with us?

Elizabeth Whalen believes that industry engagement is a critical part of cultivating new tourism talent. As a tourism professor at Middle Tennessee State University, she works every day with students who are interested in working in our industry. And she knows what a difference early engagement can make.

Elizabeth joins this episode of the podcast to explain how she prepares students for real-world tourism work and how the travel industry can help invest in tourism education. She also shares how we can better inspire our Gen Z and Gen Alpha team members. Plus, we have news about river cruise lines’ growing lineup of land tours, a special opportunity for NTA members and a Hot Minute about where our industry is failing in workforce development.

Elizabeth had a lot of great insight about what young tourism students are looking for — and how the rest of us can help. Here’s what she said about preparing students for the reality of tourism work:

“One of the things I tell the students is that we are not too good for any role in this industry. So if we’re not willing to clean a toilet, we’re in the wrong place. Sometimes you’re just gonna have to roll up your sleeves and do the dirty work and get it done. And so it’s about managing expectations on both sides and then preparing them to enter into leadership roles with best practices.

Plus, she had great perspectives on:

Follow Elizabeth Whalen on LinkedIn.

Email Elizabeth Whalen at [email protected].

Register for a Kentucky Nightcap at NTA at at ntatravelexchange.com/register.

1:13 — Travel News: River Cruise Companies Are Adding Land Tour Products

2:40 — News From Us: A Kentucky Nightcap at NTA Travel Exchange

7:36 — Elizabeth Whalen’s journey from a dude ranch to academia

12:35 — Is the tourism workforce development pipeline broken?

16:29 — What are today’s tourism students looking for?

19:42 — How tourism companies can help their staff members grow

22:39 — Building partnerships between schools and tourism companies

28:21 — What tourism leaders need to know about Gen Z and Gen Alpha

32:45 — Finding a tourism program at a university near you

46:40 — Hot Minute: Hard truth about our workforce pipeline problem

See the full interview with Elizabeth on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

For some travel company owners, the real danger isn’t selling too soon — it’s waiting too long.

Bob Sweeney and Doug Haugen of Innovative Travel Acquisitions have spent decades helping people buy and sell travel companies. They know the signs that a founder is losing the technological edge, the energy or the succession plan needed to keep a business healthy.

Bob and Doug join this episode of the podcast to explain what it looks like to sell a tour company, how owners can know when it’s time to list their travel businesses, and how buyers determine what those companies are worth. They also discuss employee buyouts, post-sale roles and the emotional reality of stepping back from a business someone spent decades building. Plus, we have news about Southwest Airlines’ possible long-haul flights, a resource for meeting planners and a Hot Minute about what Boomer tour operators need to hear about their businesses.

Bob and Doug had a lot of great insight about when and how travel company owners should sell. Here’s what Doug had to say about one of the clearest signs:

“A big one is that they find that they’re competing against everybody in a way they’ve never had to compete. Whether they’ve lost out in the marketing, the search engine optimization or their clients are going somewhere else and they don’t know why. So they see themselves falling behind. And so, in order to save what they got, they want to find a buyer that could come in and that already has the marketing tools, the technology to help them to stay alive and survive.”

Plus, they had great perspectives on:

Learn more about Innovative Travel Acquisitions at tvlacq.com.

Email Bob Sweeney at [email protected].

Email Doug Haugen at [email protected].

Discover our meeting planning resources at smallmarketmeetings.com/start.

2:06 — Travel News: Southwest Airlines says long-haul flights could be coming

3:53 — News From Us: A resource for meeting and event planners

6:22 — How Bob Sweeney began helping people sell travel companies

9:15 — How to know when it’s time to sell your travel business

12:11 — What happens when owners don’t have a clear successor

14:16 — How travel-company buyers and sellers find each other

17:00 — Who buys travel companies?

20:18 — How travel companies are valued

23:15 — What can make acquisitions harder

27:33 — What owners can do after selling their company

30:38 — What the selling process looks like

35:33 — How long it takes to sell a travel company

49:11 — Hot Minute: Is it time to transition out of your successful tour business?

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.