Deregulation has forced everyone to be more creative, innovative in terms of product and marketing, because there is so much more competition.
'This is a growth area any city can have a sightseeing company," said Richard Valerio, ASI president. "There are new hotels, convention centers opening all over the place. Call the convention and visitors bureau to see what is happening."
Ground transportation companies do not only handle sightseeing. They may also handle transfers from airport to hotel or to sites for special events. They are used to a great extent in conjunction with conventions and meetings (even "spouse" sightseeing and shopping programs while meetings are going on).
One of the ASI members is Shortline Tours, which is unusually large for a bus company. Short line had three buses when it started more than 20 years ago to provide transportation to rural areas. Later, the company bought up a sightseeing operation. Now, Shortline has 220 buses and 350 employees. The operations are so computerized that even sales locations on the road are tied to the main office in Manhattan. Bus maintenance even when to change tires is also logged in a computer inventory. The company has four levels of sales marketing, sales, sales support, and an art department to produce brochures.
Why go into the ground transportation/sightseeing business? 'The excitement of being part of a worldwide community," declared Valerio, "of hosting visitors, conveying civic pride, being creative."
An infinite variety of tour companies specialize in some interest, activity, or demographic group and fall into the category of "special interest operators." In recent years, however, the travel industry has become mindful of a huge group of people who had a deep desire to travel but due to some disability were unable to take advantage of conventional programs.
According to some experts, there are about 43 million Americans with disabilities, with a potential of generating about $60 billion in travel sales. A whole new industry has sprung up catering to these travelers. It is potentially so large and so specialized that handicapped travel is actually considered a separate field of tour operations.
Edna Davis, a former travel agent, was brought into the field quite by accident when her son, the captain of his school football team, was tackled down and did not get up.
'In the year that he spent at the hospital, people would hear I was in the travel business and ask me for help arranging travel for them. I realized no one knew anyone to help them. I handled groups, then tours, now reception services, also." Even Disneyland has called her for assistance.
The disabled, Davis stated, "are not content to fit into the mold. They seek freedom of movement. They won't be content sitting still. Disability does not mean inability."
Other companies have made this same realization. Flying Wheels Travel, for example, tailors tours for the physically disabled. Evergreen Travel Service "does whatever anybody else would do who is able bodied, but we do it slower."
This field of travel offers special opportunity for people trained in physical therapy, nursing, medicine, and psychology, as well as for people who are themselves handicapped. Travel agencies, for example, are becoming very involved in serving disabled travelers, both on a group and an individual basis, and may be very amenable to hiring someone with familiarity with serving the disabled traveler. Indeed, a registered nurse, Pam Erickson, set up a business (Professional Respite Care, Denver, CO) to provide nurses as medical travel companions for the disabled and seniors.
According to Davis, getting into the disabled travel market requires knowledge about particular details as well as meticulous efficiency in anticipating every need and making arrangements for these travelers. "Introduce yourself to a wheelchair," she advised. "See how it works. There is no one easy source of information. No two disabled people are alike. All are individuals. Each must be counseled individually their needs, desires. Always discuss with a carrier and check and recheck. Leave nothing to chance. Don't be timid; ask direct questions. They know they are disabled they live with it. Their problems need to be discussed openly."
Two laws, the Air Carriers Access Act of 1986 and The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, will force widespread improvements in access for the disabled and spur many travel oriented companies to cater to this market. The 1990 law specifically prohibits discrimination in transportation and public accommodations, including hotels and restaurants.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, for example, launched a major program to increase accessibility at 107 of the chain's hotels and resorts, as well as a nationwide recruitment program for persons with disabilities. The company hired Barrier Free Environments, Inc., Raleigh, NC, an architectural and product design firm specializing in building design for persons with disabilities, to help develop the guidelines.
Moreover, under the Air Carriers Access Act, travel agencies, as agents for the airlines, are actually required to be able to service handicapped people who wish to travel by air. This opens the way for qualified people to approach an agency and create their own position.
Tour Managers
Many people expect that they can start a career in tour operations as a tour manager (also called a tour escort or tour director). In many companies, this job is relatively easy to obtain; in others, some very sophisticated background and skills are needed. For example, leaders of China tours may need to speak Mandarin and have strong academic backgrounds as sinologists (specialists who are highly knowledgeable about Chinese culture).
Tauck Tours, a premier escorted motor coach tour company, is unusual because it hires its own tour directors (paying salary and benefits) and tries to keep as many as possible working year round.
Randy Durband, Tauck's manager of tour directors, is responsible for hiring. As many as 150 tour directors are hired in peak season; about 80 are employed year round. Durband's position is a key spot because at Tauck all positions in middle or upper management are filled from the escort staff. This is because, as Peter Tauck, director of reservations, explained, "We organize the tour here and sell it to travel agents, so the only way one would see the product is to be a tour escort. Then you see the hotels, how they function. You are more able to handle the day to day decision making. It is hard to teach the product by showing someone the brochure. You have to experience it." Even Peter, the third generation at Tauck Tours, has been a tour escort.
Things have changed," reflected Dick Sundby, a tour escort for 12 years, who served as Tauck's tour director supervisor for a while before returning to being a tour escort (leading the trips to the Canadian Rockies). "People are beginning to look at tour directing as a career. Many are writers and musicians. They want to work for five or six months and have their own thing to do in the off season.
Still, "It's a strange lifestyle for a married person or parent," noted Durband. "It's like being a professional athlete does anyone question whether Bo Jackson should be on the road? But it gives you very little opportunity for parenting. Most who do this who are married just do it in the summer."
No specific skills are required, but there are many things you have to be. "Like the Boy Scouts, you have to be honest, cheerful, brave, courteous, reverent," said Sundby. 'You have to have the understanding and patience to deal with clients. You have to be able to go the extra mile to take care of people on an individual basis that is equally important to knowing dates and places. It takes a special person to do a complete tour during the day and then handle individual requirements in the evening. You have to be a leader and be a friend."
