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I´m thinking about a niche service as an Tour operator for big cities. The idea is to offer "InsiderTours" which show secret an hidden places. Regular travel guides show only the allknown sightseeing places, but for example you could offer "Culinary Tours" to the best places to eat, which only know local insiders.

Probably there could be more Insider tours for shopping, nightlife, arts, culture, sports etc.If you think about a city like New York (probably someting like that exists already)...

What Do you think about that?
Carsten

Absolutely! There`s one thing all of us, I think can identify with: We live in an area, yet have no idea what`s a tourist attraction or even interesting.

Often, it`s only when an out-of-town friend comes for a visit that we even realize that something exists in our own town. "Woah....I didn`t know THAT was around here! Cool...!" :-D

I would imagine there are two basic approaches to something like this. One would be a niche tour, like the culinary tour, architectural, or even a ghost tour (haunted places).

The other would be connecting up with local travel agencies or hotels to access a pool of visitors.

In other words, one approach is proactive where you offer a product that`s unusual. The other is more responsive, where you become available to help promote your own town or city.

Either way, I think it`s a good idea. ;-)

Craig, thanks a lot for your interesting feedback. The second approach you mentioned I haven`t thought about but a very interesting one! Especially when you think about promoting such a service you could benefit from established players in that field.

What I haven`t analyzied so far is the economical side of that business. I´m not quite sure there are enough margins in that. What do you think?

Carsten

There actually are a lot of tour companies around. Chicago has them, so although small towns may not, large cities usually do. I think you could do some research and perhaps even some phone interviews to find out more of the specifics from existing companies. It would basically be "modeling."

Then consider Europe, where tourists arrive in, say, Rome. They`re immediately met by all kinds of people offering tours. Some are individual guides, using beat-up old cars. Others are more elegant, perhaps offering brochures in hotel lobbies. Others work with the concierges in smaller villas and beds-and-breakfast operations.

The overhead and profits would be linked to your size, transportation, and whatever else you offer. Remember "Indiana Jones," where his little-kid sidekick was originally a guide, offering him a way to get around?

The beauty of something like this is that startup costs and expansion have such a wide range of possibilities. You could start with a simple rickshaw, but end up with a national or global franchise using your own charter buses and logo. In other words, there`s a tremendous amount of room to build and develop.

It`s a great idea. It`s something that I would tell all my friends about.

I travel a lot around Europe. I totally understand the need for insider tours and guides. There is also a good opportunity to build a travel affiliate revenue stream from your website. It seems to be something that you can build a fan base with. If people like your service they could use it for each city break they take. Nothing like repeat custom.  

Thanks for your reply! Interesting approach regarding to the affiliate possibilities. To set it up in different cities you need good local insiderss as guides, probably the most important and critical thing about the idea.

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Michael Peregrine
Consultant/Coach
Start a business without starting from scratch.
My Youtube

Mike,
thanks for your statement. If you plan to do that on a larger scale in different cities you cannot do it all by yourself as a personal guide who takes groups on tour through the city. I think you should look for people as real insiders who do the tours and the part of me for example is to set up everything an so on.

I was in Edinburgh recently and went on a walking tour. The entire tour lasted 3 hours and we covered a distance of less than 2 two miles in the town center. The subjects covered the place JK Rowlings wrote her book, Robbie a faithful dog died, a woman condemned to death was allowd to live, a ghost room and much more. You could devise a walking tour for some areas of NYC and probably find out about that tour in Edinburgh to give you some ideas.
It is a very workable idea. Best.

Another idea you may want to consider is an audiotour rental or IPOD/Podcast download for a fee.  There are a lot of folks that like to walk themselves and listen to details. Few places (statue of liberty and empire state building) already have these but there are folks that would still be willing to use yours if they did not have to wait in line or if you had some sort of comical flair to it.