Originally Posted by
ambart04
1) Where do you find most of your trips? (i.e. word of mouth, Google search, brand awareness, etc.)
2) Would Japan interest you as a cycle-tour travel destination? Why or why not?)
3) Please rank the following items as far as importance when evaluating a possible tour: (1 being most important, 6 being least important)
- Quality of bike equipment offered for tour
- Hotel accommodations
- Access to gourmet & local cuisine
- Scenery along tour route
- Ability to add additional adventure excursions throughout tour (hiking, mountain biking, hang gliding, etc)
- Travel appeal of starting and ending destinations (or main destination if hub-spoke routes)
4) Proposed incentive: If you are the tour organizer and bring a group of six or more, then your trip is free. Would that encourage you to plan a trip through this company? Would the other members of your party be accepting of this offer?
I have one question........do you post locally on a Facebook group from Crankarm brewing. A guy posted this on there recently.
1. Trips? Personal interest, then a web search. Hablamos un poco de espanol y queremos ir a paises que hablan espanol.
2. Only if I was going to be there already anyway. I wouldn't go to Japan just to cycle. I'd go to Spain, France, or Italy.......in that order.
3.
3- Quality of bike equipment offered for tour
4- Hotel accommodations
5- Access to gourmet & local cuisine
2- Scenery along tour route
6- Ability to add additional adventure excursions throughout tour (hiking, mountain biking, hang gliding, etc)
1- Travel appeal of starting and ending destinations (or main destination if hub-spoke routes)
I'm going to give you some advice having traveled internationally in the last year and having done a brief bike hire outting:
You're going to need to get an "in" into the local hotels where you want to originate the bike rides. They often have tour services out of the hotels themselves or they front local tours. Do that.
Next, you're going to need both an english and local language website/front AND make sure your info is RIGHT on Google maps. Google maps works everywhere. You'd be surprised how many people use that to find stuff to do when travelling.
Equipment? Keep some spare basic pedals and helmets, crap happens travelling and gets lost. Don't want that to ruin a tour. Also, do reasonable cost insurance on the equipment. You don't want to have to pay 1/2 the cost of the tour to be "covered" but also not waive it and then ride around like a pansy the whole time.
You'll need the option of a SAG vehicle for bigger groups, however slow or novice. Things happen. That added layer of support can sway otherwise squeemish customers worried about riding in a foreign country into being willing to do it.