Decide on what type of tour you want to provide. Tours are given on just about any topic you can think of. Think about the local area and what it naturally lends itself to. Would a walking tour of historic homes and gardens be appropriate in your town? What about a bus tour that would show visitors all the local landmarks? Take tourists to visit the sites of local ghost sightings, or places that were filmed in a movie. (Savannah, Georgia has a very successful tour based on the book and movie entitled “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”.) The possibilities are endless.
Choose the stops on your tour. Where will you take your customers? Put yourself in their shoes and think about the places a first-time visitor to your town might find interesting. Be sure to include some spots that have local history or a story behind them, and also choose some spots that would make impressive pictures. The places where you take your tour could end up in someone’s scrapbook one day.
Prepare your tour guide spiel. Learn everything you can about all of the stops on your tour. Write out what you plan to say at each point, and memorize it. Practice on your friends and family until you can do it easily.
Decide what to wear. Will you wear khaki pants and a polo shirt, or will you be all decked out in a period costume?
Decide how much tickets for your tour will cost. You want to charge a high enough price that people will expect a quality tour, but not so high that regular tourists can’t afford it.
Advertise your tour. If you have a small budget you can leave stacks of fliers at local hotels for tourists to pick up, and maybe put an ad in the local yellow pages. If money is no object, you could spring for a television commercial or a spread in an appropriate magazine.
Most of all, have fun. If you are enjoying yourself, then your guests will have a great time too. This will create a chain reaction effect. If your customers enjoy the tour, they will tell their friends, and your tour guide business will grow by leaps and bounds.
