COURSE 2
Essential First Steps
Let’s begin from the beginning. You already know how to develop guided tour itineraries, but what do you need to know to develop Self-Guided Tour itineraries? We begin with traveler motivations and expectations. Then we explore the variety of self-guided tours you might develop based on activities, destination /infrastructure support, and supply chain considerations. We will provide an overview on the “hard” and “soft” provisions needed to be successful in this endeavor (which will be explored in detail in later sections), and finally, we’ll review how to keep sustainability at the foundation as you build Self-Guided tour products.
INSTRUCTOR
Monica Price
Monica is co-owner and Director of International Operations of two active travel companies. She oversees the development and smooth running of US based ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours as well as BikesPlus SRL, an incoming tour operator based in Italy. She grew up living a trans-Atlantic life between the US and Europe, leading bicycle tours in the summers in Italy and France mostly. After an undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology and a MS in Development Management from American University in DC, she settled in Italy with her husband and two children. Happy to be involved in travel at a more leisurely pace, she is convinced that “slow” travel helps us all connect more to each other and the planet we live on. She also believes that responsible tourism can assist developing countries (and travelers to those countries) and is excited when regions embrace adventure travel. Monica speaks at different active and adventure travel events in Europe and abroad and is excited to return to India after a semester in Mysore several years ago introduced her to this wonderful country.
INSTRUCTOR
Tullia Caballero
Tullia Caballero was born in the UK to Spanish and Italian parents. By the age of 18 she was fluent in four languages and lived in two continents and five countries. She graduated as an Interpreter and translator and preferring the outdoors to a desk, she worked as a tour leader, interpreter and wildlife and hiking travel designer for World Wildlife Fund - Italy, before joining the largest Dutch adventure company, SNP, as Italy product manager. This position led her to set up S-Cape Travel Italy - today a leading adventure travel company part of the S-Cape group with offices in Italy, Spain, Greece and The Netherlands serving 20,000+ passengers per year. Tullia has walked and cycled all over Italy, her adopted home since her teens and has traveled to over forty countries. She is an active and enthusiastic member of ATTA since 2009 and a member of the Slow Travel Network that has raised over 13,000 Euro with a crowdfunding project to waymark the 1000km long Via Francigena cycle route and walking trail across Italy.
Curriculum
- Course Overview (0:17)
- Why Travelers Choose Self-Guided (1:40)
- Post-COVID Self-Guided Trends (0:53)
- Traveller Motivations (2:38)
- Activities Compatible with Self-Guided Tours (4:02)
- Elements of a Self-Guided Tour: Hard Provisions (4:30)
- Elements of a Self-Guided Tour: Soft Provisions (1:53)
- Sustainability at the Core (1:26)
- Expert interview: Jim Johnson, BikeTours.com (18:25)
- Expert interview: Jan Timmerman, Boat Bike Tours on Sustainability (5:23)
TRACK BUNDLE
Developing Self-Guided Tours
This self-paced OnlineEDU course details how to successfully add multi-day self-guided active tours (primarily walking, trekking or bicycling) to a tour provider’s portfolio. Using a step-by-step approach, it outlines the critical pieces required to develop and run self-guided tours; the educators provide practical advice in a timely manner to business owners and product developers. For regional tourism boards, tourism consortia, accommodation providers or other stakeholders wanting to capitalize on the trend of self-guided travel, it can be useful to understand what elements are critical to the successful development and promotion of this unique subset of travel.