First Tours
Hey guys,
back again. 
After living in Europe for a solid amount of time, and missing this past aussie season, which looked like it had some epic days, I’m back in Oz.
When I was ‘bored’ in Europe and missing the snow I thought it would be an awesome time to try and realise my dream to start a travel company focussing on guided and custom snow tours.
I always wanted to own a travel company so First Tours was born.
First offers guided resort- and backcountry tours to unique locations. After travelling to Japan the last 5 years it and falling in love with the deep pow, natural onsens, sake and ramen it had to be the first country we visit! We’re also going to offer other locations like cat skiing in Georgia, powder chasing in South America and next year we’re doing a freeride trip to India with a day heli skiing..
Even tho I mainly target the European market, everyone is obviously welcome! And since I live in Sydney I thought might as well mention it here..
The real reason for this post however is to get some feedback. As a graphic designer I spent way to many hours f*ck*ng around trying to make my website and would love to hear your feedback.
Do you think it works, what do you like, what don’t you like. I’m still figuring out how to add Australian prices in there so for now it’s all in Euro’s. (If you are interested I can obviously quote you in $)
Anyway, thanks for taking the time and looking forward seeing what you come up with!
Hey guys,
back again.
After living in Europe for a solid amount of time, and missing this past aussie season, which looked like it had some epic days, I’m back in Oz.When I was ‘bored’ in Europe and missing the snow I thought it would be an awesome time to try and realise my dream to start a travel company focussing on guided and custom snow tours.
I always wanted to own a travel company so First Tours was born.
First offers guided resort- and backcountry tours to unique locations. After travelling to Japan the last 5 years it and falling in love with the deep pow, natural onsens, sake and ramen it had to be the first country we visit! We’re also going to offer other locations like cat skiing in Georgia, powder chasing in South America and next year we’re doing a freeride trip to India with a day heli skiing..Even tho I mainly target the European market, everyone is obviously welcome! And since I live in Sydney I thought might as well mention it here..
The real reason for this post however is to get some feedback. As a graphic designer I spent way to many hours f*ck*ng around trying to make my website and would love to hear your feedback.
Do you think it works, what do you like, what don’t you like. I’m still figuring out how to add Australian prices in there so for now it’s all in Euro’s. (If you are interested I can obviously quote you in $)Anyway, thanks for taking the time and looking forward seeing what you come up with!
@BASC,
I’ve thought of this before so I feel like I should reply. Have a look at Haka Tours in NZ, they are a good example of what works.
Issues I have with your plan which I have only seen what you posted above:
1. Website link? Even a JPG to see what it’s like?
2. How else are you promoting this company to get customers?
3. Thought about changing the name? Google “First Tours” and look how many there are already. Make it more “Gnar” / “Steezy” / “Recognizable”. The brands that take off have ultimately cool names even if that doesn’t change anything about the company.
4. Do you know anyone who would be willing to promote your business for you? Hostels or hotels in the area if it’s just a local mountain tour? or travel agents / facebook groups / snowboard forums to promote?
Issues I came into which ultimately made me dismiss the idea for myself.
1. Upfront capital: You need to buy a bus to get people to the resorts. My plan was 5 resorts in Canada with a few days at each, turning into a 2 week tour.
2. Potential customer base: Are you willing to run a few smaller tours to get customers to then build a clientele? This might run with you paying for your own tickets or the tour maybe breaking even rather than a profit to start with. Do you have enough money to keep you going until this is taking off?
3. Are you keen enough to ride EVERY day of tour? I’m a keen snowboarder but even I need breaks. Would you need a second person to help you run this company? You do the tour and I man the phones / do the office work, then I do the tour and you do the work. Keep everyone fresh etc. Even if you can do everyday, do you have time to run the company while running tours?
4. Are you a resident of the country you’re operating out of to be able to buy a bus / bus license / get insurance / get agreements with hotels / hostels to house your guests / do you have agreements with resorts for cheap passes?
5. Even if everything goes 100% to plan, are you going to be wanting to do this in 5 years time? 10 years time? If it’s going well enough, are you stuck doing paperwork and you need someone else to run the tour, therefore ruining the having fun for work idea?
6. What do you do in the off season? Are you doing tours in Australia and Europe? Japan and Chilie? Remember that the start and end of the season will both be quieter and therefore you need to have better deals etc.
7. If it does go all to plan and you get a lot of interest are you going to expand? If you need an offsider, hit me up cause I’d be keen to run something like this but can’t fill in all the criteria myself.
——————————-
If you want to chat with me more, PM me and I can add you on facebook and we can investigate more (I’m out of work for 3 weeks so would be happy to have something to look into). I can show you my plans which may give you some ideas.
Hey guys,
back again.
After living in Europe for a solid amount of time, and missing this past aussie season, which looked like it had some epic days, I’m back in Oz.When I was ‘bored’ in Europe and missing the snow I thought it would be an awesome time to try and realise my dream to start a travel company focussing on guided and custom snow tours.
I always wanted to own a travel company so First Tours was born.
First offers guided resort- and backcountry tours to unique locations. After travelling to Japan the last 5 years it and falling in love with the deep pow, natural onsens, sake and ramen it had to be the first country we visit! We’re also going to offer other locations like cat skiing in Georgia, powder chasing in South America and next year we’re doing a freeride trip to India with a day heli skiing..Even tho I mainly target the European market, everyone is obviously welcome! And since I live in Sydney I thought might as well mention it here..
The real reason for this post however is to get some feedback. As a graphic designer I spent way to many hours f*ck*ng around trying to make my website and would love to hear your feedback.
Do you think it works, what do you like, what don’t you like. I’m still figuring out how to add Australian prices in there so for now it’s all in Euro’s. (If you are interested I can obviously quote you in $)Anyway, thanks for taking the time and looking forward seeing what you come up with!
@BASC,
I’ve thought of this before so I feel like I should reply. Have a look at Haka Tours in NZ, they are a good example of what works.Issues I have with your plan which I have only seen what you posted above:
1. Website link? Even a JPG to see what it’s like?
2. How else are you promoting this company to get customers?
3. Thought about changing the name? Google “First Tours” and look how many there are already. Make it more “Gnar” / “Steezy” / “Recognizable”. The brands that take off have ultimately cool names even if that doesn’t change anything about the company.
4. Do you know anyone who would be willing to promote your business for you? Hostels or hotels in the area if it’s just a local mountain tour? or travel agents / facebook groups / snowboard forums to promote?Issues I came into which ultimately made me dismiss the idea for myself.
1. Upfront capital: You need to buy a bus to get people to the resorts. My plan was 5 resorts in Canada with a few days at each, turning into a 2 week tour.
2. Potential customer base: Are you willing to run a few smaller tours to get customers to then build a clientele? This might run with you paying for your own tickets or the tour maybe breaking even rather than a profit to start with. Do you have enough money to keep you going until this is taking off?
3. Are you keen enough to ride EVERY day of tour? I’m a keen snowboarder but even I need breaks. Would you need a second person to help you run this company? You do the tour and I man the phones / do the office work, then I do the tour and you do the work. Keep everyone fresh etc. Even if you can do everyday, do you have time to run the company while running tours?
4. Are you a resident of the country you’re operating out of to be able to buy a bus / bus license / get insurance / get agreements with hotels / hostels to house your guests / do you have agreements with resorts for cheap passes?
5. Even if everything goes 100% to plan, are you going to be wanting to do this in 5 years time? 10 years time? If it’s going well enough, are you stuck doing paperwork and you need someone else to run the tour, therefore ruining the having fun for work idea?
6. What do you do in the off season? Are you doing tours in Australia and Europe? Japan and Chilie? Remember that the start and end of the season will both be quieter and therefore you need to have better deals etc.
7. If it does go all to plan and you get a lot of interest are you going to expand? If you need an offsider, hit me up cause I’d be keen to run something like this but can’t fill in all the criteria myself.
——————————-If you want to chat with me more, PM me and I can add you on facebook and we can investigate more (I’m out of work for 3 weeks so would be happy to have something to look into). I can show you my plans which may give you some ideas.
Thanks a bunch for the comments! Very stupid of me not adding my actual website. Must’ve got a bit distracted.. http://www.firsttours.eu is my website.. 
Those are all things I’ve been thinking of. Am definitely trying to start of small and have to hold myself back from not wanting to do to much straight away! Also wanting small groups and already calculated not to make any profit in the first few years.
The plan is to eventually run tours in Eastern Europe, India, Japan and South America. In the off season I do freelance graphic design and am a surf instructor. Long-long term I also plan to run some surf trips. The misses also has a pretty decent job so am counting myself lucky! Haha.
I can definitely see myself doing this business for a very long time if all goes as planned, even if that means getting stuck in a lot of paper work. It’s just an industry I’ve always wanted to be in. I know in Australia and NZ there are some great, similar companies like Haka, Mint etc. I’d love to one day be as big as they are..
Thanks again for the input!! (I’ll send you an DM)
Bart
http://www.firsttours.eu
facebook @ firsttours.nl
Instagram @ first_tours
Here’s the video we made last season in Japan.
Safe to say we had a ball!