Quality Marketing Advice With a Difference that sells TOURS

For small tour companies | compiled by a Private Tour Industry Expert.

Here is what you get when you order a report from J3 Consultants Hong Kong

The report on YOUR BUSINESS comes with a detailed analysis of what I have done operating as J3 Private Tours Hong Kong from 2011 - 2020

my SUCCESSFUL tour business is the real world case study

Generally the report takes between 5 - 7 days, I am very thorough and I take my work very seriously | I will spend the time analysing your business and your website page by page and come up with recommendations on a raft of small but essential incremental improvements which have worked for me and these marketing strategies will be a success for you as well.

Included with my report you will get real data and statistics from my business (and some wise old words of wisdom) starting from Tour No.1 in April 2011 up until Tour No. 2324 in January 2020 when Hong Kong closed it’s borders to tourism due to the Covid 19 Pandemic

My version of frequently asked questions or more to the point | what you get for your money

• Data Driven Essential Statistics | my one page of absolutely essential statistics and key client data that guides me in running my business and it is something that all small or medium size tour operators should do, these sales and tour statistics run from 2011 - 2020 - I am very much data driven and after you have run a tour company for over 10 years you KNOW which data is crucial

• Pricing of Tours | I have over 10 years experience on pricing tours another vexing question but my solution really worked for me

• One of the CRUCIAL MISTAKES most Tour Companies make | the answer to that will surprise you

• The HEAD SCRATCHING MISTAKE most large Tourism Consultancy Advisors make - the answer to that will surprise you even more!

• Company Website Part 1 | I am not a website designer but I have created and operated my own websites - I have been critiquing websites for over 20 years now from a sales and marketing perspective, the Tour Industry has it’s own quirks and I am always amazed at what people leave out of the most important marketing tool they have! - one of the biggest issues with websites has always been the cost and the phrase “you get what you pay for” is very apt - I will give you solutions to this long standing issue

• After Tour Report | Customer Demographics | A copy of my detailed after tour report I do after every tour, the importance of this cannot be overstated!, I have 2,324 of them

• Tripadvisor Review System | my advice on Tripadvisor reviews and I have a lot to say on this subject

• Tour Quality | my advice on making sure you offer the very best tour to your guests that you can, every time

• Types of Tours | the difference between group tours and private tours, they are two quite different animals so to speak and require different marketing and pricing strategies

• The Seniors Market for Private Tours | why you should NEVER overlook this important segment

• The vexing question of the “Free Tour” Companies | we have them in Hong Kong and I have some strong opinions!

• Planning + Booking of Tours | a very important consideration when it comes to group tours vs private tours and age of the client is a real factor, do people book well in advance or do they book when they arrive at their destination? I have over 10 years of data on this

• The complexities of booking using a mobile phone | my comments are based on my tour business and may well surprise you, it is a complicated subject, booking a tour of any kind has many variables and people generally have a lot of questions, it is not like ordering food from an online supermarket or a shirt from GAP!!

• Unique Selling Points | The vital importance of USP’s, it is essential that you know what your Unique Selling Points are and market them with gusto

• The huge mistake a lot of Tour Companies make | …..and if corrected it can have a huge impact on DIRECT bookings

• Photography | and why it is so vitally important and yet most people ignore it, go here to see my Hong Kong Photographs, I take great pride in my work in this area with over 169,000 + Hong Kong images on my FLICKR site (with 62+ million views) and this site has become a very popular reference site for people researching Hong Kong - I do not sell my images and anyone can download freely the original images to use however they want - my images pop up in lots of magazines and on lots of websites! | From my perspective you need to use a proper digital camera and not a smartphone, I spent US$3,750 on my Sony camera 8 years ago and it takes incredible images no matter how poor the light, I consider this one of my finest investments for the business - and let me clear I do not consider myself a professional photographer in any shape or form but I have developed my own style over the years.

• SEO | How important are SEO and SEO Keywords? - the pro’s and con’s my SEO work is a real life SEO case study over 10 years

• Hire a Digital Marketing Agency | … and list on Google My Business, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and such

• Knowledge of your Town, City or Country | finding a subject relating to your Town, City or Country that you are passionate about and becoming a real expert on that subject - mine is transport including trucks, buses, ferries, trams and cars and car licence plates and many people regard me as the no. 1 authority in Hong Kong on the subject of Car Licence Plates and trust me this is REAL Hong Kong Culture 101

• Blog Posts | - essential? - Doubtful! - but I have written many hundreds of blog posts and I am pretty sure it has had no impact on bookings, Marketing Experts recommend you do it which is all well and good until you realise you have to write them and trust me you get the same feeling as you used to have when it was time to write an essay at school! In my report I will give you the pro’s and con’s of blog posts and you can decide, I still write them and people do read them

• Hotels and Tours | why getting Hotels to offer your tours will probably be a waste of your time, it was for me and my friends (other Tour Companies) in Hong Kong but may work for you in your country

• Company Website Part 2 | If you are a startup or small operator and if funds are very limited I always recommend you create your own website using Squarespace like I do, Squarespace has so many awesome templates and although there is a learning curve the results are worth it - I can and do make small incremental adjustments on a daily basis + I experiment with new ideas all the time and I pay US$350 a year for a business website - I have over the years spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out how to build a better website, on the other hand if you find yourself in a positive financial position and have the budget and feel you lack the technical skills | marketing skills or time to create your own website then look no further than Tourism Tiger, they do create awesome websites! Perhaps at some stage I will actually get Tourism Tiger to create a better website for me than what I have done but for now mine works just fine and I would never, ever recommend you use one of those “free website providers”. For the record my own J3 Private Tour website is a little bit like Frankenstein and quite a few website designers have criticised it… but guess what…. it works!

• Premium Tours | why you should consider positioning yourself at the top of the market, offering a premium product at a premium price

• OTA’s - a vexing issue | Online Travel Agents and the pro’s and con’s of working with OTA’s and my conclusions just might surprise you suffice to say you should do your utmost to get direct bookings! but my conclusions are not as clear cut as you think - I worked with one OTA only, Tours by Locals and gave them up in 2019, if you consider that Viator will take at least a 25% commission for a tour booking… wow, that is a big chunk of change

  Automated Online Booking System | the pro’s and con’s of investing in an automated online booking system and why I have NOT made the change. I handle bookings myself with my tried and trusted system, something you can do if you are a one person company, I do not see the point of an automated online booking system if you do 100 - 250 tours a year.

• Essential Reading Material | why you should read How to Win Friends and Influence People from 1936 and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living from 1948 by Dale Carnegie, essential reading for all Small Business Owners

• Friendly Competition | The importance of being best friends with your local competitors and forming affiliations | alliances and how it saved me from going out of business in 2016 after a medical emergency, I have a lot to say on this subject, suffice to say it is great for business.

• The Future of Tourism | …. and if you hadn’t guessed, despite Covid 19 I am absolutely optimistic that the Travel and Tour Industry will see a continued and substantial and positive rebound going into 2025 and overhauling your business now makes perfect sense

J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong

Email | jamie@j3consultantshongkong.com Email | jamie@j3tourshongkong.com

Phone - (+852) 90338226

WhatsApp - (+852) 65325013

Web | j3consultantshongkong.com + j3tourshongkong.com

Instagram | j3tourshk

Tags

Tourism Marketing | Tourism Marketing Agency | Travel Marketing Agency | Travel and Tourism Marketing | Direct Marketing for Tours | Direct Tours Marketing | Marketing Direct Tours | Direct Marketing for Private Tours | Marketing Direct Tours & Attractions | Marketing for Tour Operators | Selling Tours | Tourism Marketing for Small Tour Operators | Selling Private Tours