Leading the Way to Free Travel
"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
ou 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.
er 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)
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.
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
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,
restaurant
sportation, 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
at 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 y
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
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 kitche
ed 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 cl
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
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 tha
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,
etting 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 te
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
ness 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
e 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, Manha
66, 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
e 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
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 pre
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
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,"
. "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
xt 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
act 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
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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