Helping Hearing Impaired travelers - OurExplorer Tour Guides

OurExplorer was delighted this week to help a lady who is hearing impaired to travel through Asia. OurExplorer had our best tour guides ensure the trip was safe, educational and enjoyable.
100% Happiness Guaranteed!

As a tour guide, have you ever helped hearing or visually impaired travellers before?

OurExplorer presenting to tour guides at WFTGA

I am excited to annonce that OurExplorer will be presenting at the World Federation of Tourist Guides annual conference in Bali - mid Jan 2009.
OurExplorer will be delighted to meet thousands of tour guides from all over the world. The aim of OurExplorer is to help these tour guides access a new method of getting business - online.

OurExplorer will focus on how online shopping and purchasing is the way of the future - rising dramatically each year.

Do you have any queries about online sales for your tour guide service?

Cheers
Dave Cunningham
Chief Exploring Officer

Travel writers - Love the experience of tour guides

In an amazing realisation this week, OurExplorer have confirmed that travel writers really value the experience of professional tour guides.
The benefits for the tour guides are huge with a free article, media exposure about their services and if booked via OurExplorer the tour guide gets their services rated independantly also.
For the travel writer, they of course get to see the destination through the eyes of a local. This wisdom and insight gives a truely authentic expereince which makes for great articles.
OurExplorer do love a win:win situation.

Happy Exploring
Dave C
Chief Exploring Officer

OurExplorer - Tour guide portal wins award

It was with great pleasure and delight that I collected the prestigous Web Marketing Associations award in October 2008.
OurExplorer won the award for innovation and "Travel Standard of Excellence".
Now the largest tour guide booking portal in the world - OurExplorer has finally been recognised for its advances in such a short period of time.

What do you think of OurExplorer?

Dave Cunningham
Chief Exploring Officer

Getting coversion rates of tour guide bookings up

I would like today to look for some feedback and suggestions on how OurExplorer can get higher conversion rates for the tour guides.
By this I mean - getting more visitors of www.ourexplorer.com to actually book a tour guide of their choice before they leave the site.

- Does the homepage of www.ourexplorer.com need to change?
- If yes, how can it change to put more focus on tour guide bookings?

Cheers
Dave C

Do tour guide photos help build client trust?

I am always interested when some of the tour guides on OurExplorer do not add their profile photo. I wonder, why not invest an extra minute to complete your profile and then get the benefit from many client bookings later.

Or does a profile photo of a tour guide actually add value and build trust in a potential client?
Would you book a stranger you never saw or a friendly face you trusted more?

Explore the World Through Local Eyes: OurExplorer Launches

Hailed as "the travel service innovation of 2008" by the Irish Times July 16 - OurExplorer facilitates with ease the on-line booking of professional tourist guides from all over the world. Save time and money while you explore your next destination with the wisdom and guidance of a local.

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Interesting led for tourist guides

Well, I had to share this new piece of data with you. Not only is OurExplorer getting 4,000 unique hits per month ahead of expectations - but the most tourist guide bookings are coming from Cruise websites and people on Cruises booking things to do at their next city stop.

Really exciting for a person on a cruise to know the wisdom of a tourist guide awaits for them and enhances the whole travel experience!
Any more ideas where tourist guide can get large booking numbers from?

OurExplorer Tourist guide booking live - June 13th

Well, it finally happened over the weekend. The OurExplorer tourist guide booking tool went up and live. Tourist guides can now be booked on online directly by clients.
Then user rated and commented on post the booking - which is all stored and displayed for future clients to share and enjoy.

So if you are a tourist guide or an adventure traveller have a look today.
What do you think OurExplorer can do better?

Tourist Guide Bookings Site Launch - June 13th

It's been a hard and long road for the OurExplorer team but we finally have the end in sight.
The first true on-line booking system for tourist guides is going live officially on Friday june 13th 2008.
The OurExplorer team have already registered over 200 tourist guides from over 60 countries around the world and the site is still not even live - an anazing acheivement.
Following the success of early tourist guide registeration OurExplorer have decided to make it FREE for all tourist guides to register on the site for the fore seeable future.
The OurExplorer purpose is to help tourist guides increase their income via this global booking tool. Only 2 weeks to go now!!
Why not look at the beta today and give me some feedback?

OurExplorer is live for tour guide registeration

We are there at last, www.ourexplorer.com goes live just from today for full local private tour guide registeration.
Extra tour guide bookings at no extra cost for the tour guide.
I hope you all like the design and navigation of the site. The next step now is to get the registered tour guide numbers to over 1,000 across the world so OurExplorer becomes a valuable resource to travellers.
It benefits all tour guides to have high traffic hits to the site and then bookings on their profiles.
Please try and register today.

OurExplorer - Tour Guide language importance

As a tour guide did you ever wonder how much more business you could generate if you were fluent in another language.

Would you choose a language with a large global speaking population e.g. Spanish or Mandarin Chinese?
Would you be more specific so you may be the only tour guide in your country to speak a certain language e.g. Swedish?

The experience a traveller has with a tour guide is all to do with the relationship built via communication during the tour. So if you are going to invest the time on another language it may be best to only start if you are committed to a fluent level being achieved.

Did you ever benefit from learning a new language resulting in more bookings?

Only 1 month to go until launch!!

Now that we have sucessfully reached March, I am delighted to let all the tour guides know the OurExplorer site will go live on the first week of April.
All Tour Guides who register during the months of April and May will get lifetime free membership. Yes tour guides, lifetime free membership!

Our Explorer is so confident that the website will be a huge success we are willing to give this away for free. All we ask of the tour guide is to populate their full profile as complete as they can.

This is a win/win anyway as it will give the tour guides more business.

Any questions?

Private Tour Guides - Word of mouth marketing

Hello to all you private tour guides looking to increase business. Lets discuss today the free and all important marketing tool - "Word of Mouth" which is a form of viral marketing.


Q. How does a private tour guide create word of mouth?
It is all about creating a point of conversation that your client will have to tell their friends and family when they return home.

People love to tell everyone about their holiday and travel adventures - especially when they have something funny or exciting to say. So be creative and think of something cool, exciting and different during your tour. Give the client something to talk about!

*********Some Examples
1. Bring the client to a unique and very local cafe or restaurant. Even the family home for a coffee if both parties are comfortable with that.
2. Give the client a small but personal gift. Be creative and it does not have to cost much e.g. a card, a local fruit/veg to try etc
3. Funny stories on the venues included in the tour the client could not easily read about.

As a private tour guide you need to stand out to get the top ratings and comments from your clients. This will then propel you to more and more bookings....

Cheers
Dave C

Local Tour Guides increase booking rates

The topic to discuss this week is how can local tour guides being booked on-line increase their booking rate? Increased booking rates means more income.

Two methods local tour guides are using are -
1. The local tour guide updates an availability calendar so it is clear to the client when the local tour guide is available. A client will not be impressed if they make requests for your time and find out you are not available (people use the internet to save time when booking local tour guides)
2. Local tour guides also report higher bookings once they have estabhlished a user rating. This rating gives the local tour guide an advantage above other guides. Rated guides are trusted guides.

Can you think of other methods tour guides can increase on-line booking rates?

Chief Exploring Officer
David Cunningham

Local Tour Guides - Getting more business

This week I would like to discuss and get feedback on how local tour guides can get more work and therefore income.

Tour guides can join with a local travel agent
Tour guides can join websites e.g. www.ourexplorer.com
Tour guides can market directly themselves in hotels, tourist information offices etc

All these options carry advantages and disadvantages varying from cost of commission, cost of entry and volume of business received.

I would like to hear from tour guides on their experiences with the three sources above?

Should we market tours to the locals?

Yesterday I experienced a fantastic local tour guide experience in my home city of Sydney, Australia. I booked a tour guide, Cooee Coogee, to gain insight and local wisdom about the new area I had moved into just 1 year ago.

I learnt so many interesting facts on Coogee to retell over the BBQ or in the pub. As I now walk around the area after the tour guide experience, I feel more informed and that the area is more interesting now to me.

So should a local tour guide market to the locals?

Tour Guide payment methods

Tour Guides need to ensure a fast, easy and low cost metod of getting paid.
The best option for many local private tour guides in our explorer is payment via cash. Cash on delivery when the local guide meets the client is the best way and lowest cost way to get paid.

But in what currency is preferred?
Is paypal a safer method rather than the tour guide carrying cash?

let ourexplorer.com know your thoughts today......

Private Tour Guides and customer service levels

Today I am going to discuss the importance of flexibility during a tour for the customer.
Local private tour guides are indeed passionate about their city and region. Local guides wish to ensure the client gets the most insight and wisdom possible from the time they spend together. Ok, we understand that.

But what if the customer had a big night before meeting? What if jetlag is setting in? Is it time for the tour guides to ease off?

Many private tour guides with ourexplorer.com believe questions are the answer. Keep checking in with your client to see are they tired, thirsty or even bored. Remember, their happiness is what is key to your success as a tour guide.

How a tour guide can ensure they lose business

Today I would like to get some feedback and thoughts on the subject of local private tour guides responding quickly to tour requests from potential customers.

Q. What is the required timeframe of reply?
Q. What methods of reply are available to the guides?

One method of quick reply to customers is via E-mail on the internet. This works very well for Local tour guides with daily internet access at their finger tips.

It is true if a client "Frank" is going to visit Kenya, looks for a local tour guide and requests availability confirmation from the guide - he is only willing to wait 48hrs for a reply. Otherwise he shall go to another guide. So how can a local tour guide with infrequent access to the Internet reply back in time?

www.ourexplorer.com has an option for local private tour guides without daily internet access to recieve a mobile phone text message alert when a customer has sent a booking request. That ensures a timely reply and a happy customer experience.

Would this work for you?