Is 1300 USD a discouraging price for a tour?

Not About Food
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100 USD per day for “in country / on site” is not a “OMG shocker” - pretty normal I’d say - but keep in mind the ‘buyer’ is expecting lodging and meals in that cost.
that said, a seasoned traveler to the region will know, , , , really doesn’t cost that much… but, yes, they will pay for the services of “everything pre-arranged”

keep in mind - the average US or European tourist is not expecting to hear:
“Oh hi! This morning we will visit xzy but your are on your own for lunch.
After lunch, we’ll visit abc, and you are on your own to find dinner and a bed for the night.”

sounds silly - but unless the details are explicitly stated, people - especially seasoned travelers, will avoid the offer. they will expect the tour organizer to have found and booked “very nice stuff” for those needs.

methinks the biggest issue for explorers is unexpectedly discovering things that anyone would reasonable assume is “included” in the stated cost/price. and it’s not only “assumed include” - being tossed into a foreign country and foreign culture and a language you don’t read/write/speak and suddenly required to ‘do it yourself’ . . . no - mega -big issue.

sorry if your earlier reception was a bit ‘chilly’ - most likely a failure in communications . . . . we do get buckets of spammers - they seldom continue past their initial posts… honest questions get honest answers - hope mine help!

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@ipsedixit There’s a huge competition.

Some companies show very small totals, and then tell the guests that it’s only for transport and accommodation. Tickets for attractions should be bought at the sites, and meals paid for by the guests.

Big companies with a good reputation name a much higher price, and add less attractions. They add “activities” in order to keep the guests occupied but spending less money. They make big profits. Some actually name a very big price, and then include the five star hotels etc. But that’s for the wealthiest tourists.

1300 can actually do the work for large groups. (Hence the phrase “From 1300” in the ad.)That’s with 3 or 4 star hotels, breakfast, and transport. Plus tickets to attractions. On sharing basis a comfortable room can be booked for 100 – 150 USD. For a company it can be booked for much less. That’s shared between 2 guests. So if a room is booked for 100 USD that’s 50 per person. They are hotels with a swimming pool and decent service.

@Harters Thanks a lot John, helpful as always. Yes things are getting into shape I guess. I was busy with some other work during the past few months, and am back to this. Thanks for the website link. I’ll get a few ideas from it. Have you seen my website I’ll message it to you :smiley: I don’t know how ethical it is to post it here in public.

I think what you say is true. I’ll first show the important points in big letters. Then the price at the end (in much smaller letters maybe). I can message you a leaflet I have already created, for a general idea.

Trying to build a reputation for quality service for reasonable pricing. Proves to be harder than I thought. Lol.

Usually with any company, the lunch and dinner are not included in the cost (which is clearly mentioned in the itinerary in this case) unless requested by the group. But they are taken to a restaurant of their choice (pre arranged) and are able to dine together. No running around looking for restaurants. But on request that too can be added to the cost. Breakfast is included.

Guide is included in the price. One with the National Tourist Guide License, the highest grade in Sri Lanka. :smiley:

It’s good to know how actual people from other countries see this. Gives a great opportunity to fine-tune my leaflet.

@TheGforceNY Target audience is the US and EU. I am sending this ad to a friend living somewhere in Pennsylvania. He offered to display the leaflet at his workplace as a help. Also sending to a friend in Germany who has been telling me to send a leaflet for several weeks now.

Surely there is an itinerary related to the advertised price. A detailed one. Even the itinerary pages on the website have details to a great extent, but the itinerary sent in personal correspondence has everything needed, and open for discussion too.

Definitely there’s luxury accommodation in Sri Lanka. The Hilton, Cinnamon, Anantara, Uga, Shangri La, and many others. But I don’t think there would be too much of a demand for that level of tourism for a small player like me.

@HappyOnion ) Thanks a lot for the advice. Very helpful.

I have always been honest Tom, never been a spammer. It never was any misunderstanding, but it’s all good. Your answer here helps a lot. All answers here gave me a really good idea about what is expected, and how the price is seen by different groups.

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I’m learning a lot @LastManStanding , even if it doesn’t help you much! :grin:

My husband usually does most of the booking for our family trips, always “small group tours”, just including our family of five.

It’s usually in Europe, and we usually get to choose from a range of hotels, and tell the company what kinds of activities we are looking for.

Husband won’t do busses. He looks for private “cars” that can comfortably accommodate five, with “English speaking” drivers.

We usually have two or more phone or zoom discussions before agreeing to a final list and prices. Accomodations are really important to us, and other than hotel breakfasts, we usually only expect food to be included on food tours. We make it a point to ask about convenient options when we book all day tours.

My sister and I have worked with planners when we are touring primarily for food, and we do a lot more back and forth about food, and get restaurant reservations, but the meals are not included.

We have never booked a tour that includes airfare, but we do ask for transportation between airports or trains and accommodations, and often for family arriving from different airports at different times.

We need to get better at asking about getting to and from tour meeting places.

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This is close to what I had in mind.
Give the guests a plan, discuss with them, make any changes, and execute. And definitely be available on some video calling channel as much as possible.
Your answer helps to a great extent, as it will be mainly small groups that I must expect, being a new comer to the field. It’s too early, I mean much too early to think about buses at this point. lol.
Toyota KDH vans are the best for small groups, and are the most popular among tourists that arrive in Sri Lanka.
What you say about food is the main reason not to include food. Different choices and requests. It’s a tough task unless it’s a buffet.
Thanks a lot for your input, really helps.

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Oh yes! Being available for unforseen events is huge! We have had hurricanes, floods, and strikes that would have been difficult, if not impossible to navigate on our own.

A few companies have supplied apps which were varying degrees of helpful; we could communicate with other members of our party and the tour company, access maps, tickets, itineraries. Other things I am probably forgetting.

ETA One more thing, that I don’t understand completely; we can tell that some tour companies are working with smaller tour guides that also work independently, and have their own websites, or are part of something like “Local Guides com”, or the ones that work with TripAdvisor. One thing we noticed is it is harder to figure out tips and reviews when they are presumably subcontracted, then it is when we arrange it ourselves.

ETA, not Local Tours com, its Tours By Locals.. And Viator was the company that seems to manage most tours for TripAdvisor.

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Yes having a group communication method is essential. But before committing to a tour there could be a million questions to discuss, and it’s good to know that you are talking to an actual professional, not a teenager with a laptop. Lol.
Sri Lankan guides can be verified online, the list is published, with the category, on the Tourism Ministry website. Tripadvisor is full of self promotion I think. They have networks of companies that review each other, according to what I have seen. Therefore I decided not to advertise there. I created my own website, and keep improving it as much as possible, until the day I can afford to hire a webmaster. :sweat_smile:
Tip is mostly what guides go for, especially at big companies. Guide fee is one place where companies cut costs. They pay a very low amount and tell the guides to “work well” for a “good tip.” Some guides take the tourists to various shops for commission, and at the end of the tour they have visited more shops than anything else. :rofl:

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Kind of impossible to answer without knowing what it covers, what grade of hotels, and what comparable prices are as there are likely already other similar alternatives

Can you add some details?

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Are these set tours where anyone can sign up and there’s a set itinerary? Or are you acting as a guide and travel agent for private parties on their own schedule? I personally would not go on a group tour with 40 strangers, but I’d consider a private guide/driver in an area where it’s hard to navigate on your own.

My budget is much closer to backpacker than Amanjunkie and I haven’t been to Asia in 15 years but I agree that $100/day seems cheap to very cheap depending on what’s included. In 2009 around SE Asia, sketchy backpacker hostels were $5-10, an ok cheap hotel was $20-30, and an actually nice place was $50+ so $100/day was do-able. I imagine there’s been inflation. (I checked and the price at the all-inclusive property where I worked has doubled!)

I’m sure Rick Steves has been mentioned before, looks like his European tours are mostly $3-400/day. He tries to be on the budget end and make Europe affordable.

I feel like $1000/week is a minimum, that’s only $143 a day What can you offer for $2-300/day?

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@Saregama basically it includes transport in a comfortable AC vehicle, tickets to all major attractions of each day, decent accommodation at 3 to 4 star hotels, and breakfast. The guests’ extra expenses would be the lunch and dinner, and anything they buy, like souvenirs etc, if they wish so. Also any unexpected expenses such as medical stuff.

Prices change depending on the number of guests, which I have mentioned clearly in the preliminary correspondence, and in the FAQ section of the website.
Comparable prices would be: big companies such as Jetwing would quote somewhere around 2000 for this tour excluding tickets, and a small player would quote around 1200 but only for transport and hotels.

My main point is to not make the tour look too cheap or too expensive. Because even I won’t look at something if it sounds like a click bait or a scam. That’s the barrier I want to break.

@Babette for 300 a day, for a group of around 5, I would give a plan that would compete with any other top class company operating in the country in terms of value for money. Only without accommodation in the price range of Uga Chena Huts, but with accommodation such as Jetwing Yala, Double Tree by Hilton, and Shangri La Hambantota. :grinning:
These tours are only for a single group, and all pre-planned. But then it also works for a group’s own schedule i.e. send me the itinerary and I’ll plan the whole thing and arrange it. The group only has to participate, everything is taken care of.

From all above responses what I realize is that I cannot squeeze all potential tourists into one leaflet. Need different ads. But I can only display one leaflet at my friend’s office. Lol. Tough decision.

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I think you just need to clarify what’s included and emphasize that it’s private and customize-able. Do you have minimum and maximum group size?

Advertise a few sample itineraries of 7, 10, or 14 days with a starting price range based on group size.

If you’re marketing to Americans, we’re going to spend $1000 on airfare to get there, so another $2-3-5k for a tour package is totally reasonable. Where I live, our minimum wage is $20/hr and everything is expensive.

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Would you do a Rick Steves tour, or not posh enough?

I’m going camping on my next vacation, it’s nice when there’s running water but not required. My bar is low :sweat_smile:

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@LastManStanding I’m interpreting @ipsedixit’a comments as that if the components don’t add up for someone calculating the individual bits, it won’t bode well.

For eg, costing in Mumbai, which I know is more expensive, but at least in the same area of the world:
Hotel - $75 - $200 for 3* to 4* (by western standards) depending on location and brand
AC car with driver - $25 - $50 depending on size and quality of vehicle
Attractions - $5 - $10 for foreigners

Between just the hotel and car, we’re already well over your numbers, without the guide cost and other things. Food is cheap in those parts, as we all know, unless you’re targeting expensive seafood, which is an added attraction in Sri Lanka of course.

As a local to the region, I’d be wondering what kind of hotels and cars we’d end up in for < $100 a day.

So to my earlier comment, I think you would be well served to put examples of the types of hotels, and pictures of the types of cars, just as a for instance.

Things can be a lot cheaper in Asia generally, as we all know, but more clarity will get you more incomings imho.

What kinds of offices are these where your friends will put up flyers? I would think you might have better success partnering with some small travel agents instead, or posting on travel forums.

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Yes, the realities of operating a business can be quite jarring.

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Shangri La Hambantota looks like $150 - 180 per night. If there’s two people per room that would still be tight for your $100/day estimate. Though I am sure you will work out a better rate.

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@Babette Thank you for the answer. I’ll do just that. I have itineraries for 7, 8, and 10 days. I will work out the costs and post a simple comparison here. I will not publish itineraries and ads etc here which will be unethical I guess, but I will message them and costing excel sheet if anyone needs a better look at the things. Then anyone will see if what I say is doable or not. The current price is for a group of 8 or 9 (for 8 it shows 1336 and for 9 it’s 1210). For 5 it’s 2015. Maybe I should show several options in the ad.
@Harters Thank you so much for trying to help me here John, I am really grateful :pray:. I won’t stop trying. I will create a name as a reasonable provider of tours. I will get there, slowly but surely.
@saregama I have a costing sheet actually. I only have to enter the numbers, and the formulas calculate the cost. Hotels are not 5 star, but comfortable ones. Examples for hotels: Kassapa Lions Rock and Habarana Tree house Mutu village for higher end, and Lankapura Heritage or La Dolce Vita for the lower end. Those hotels are reasonable for the price I believe, and all have swimming pools etc. I’ll message you a little breakdown of how costs work. Just one example :slight_smile:
@TheGforceNY I said Shangri La Hambantota for 300 per day. I think you didn’t notice that. I can’t even imagine giving Shangri La for 100 a day even on sharing basis.

But now I get the idea that scraping off a very low profit serves no purpose. It’s more respectable to add a higher profit margin and make the tour more trustworthy, and make more money. :sweat_smile: Big companies are never wrong about making a profit. :sweat_smile:

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So, my response to ipsedixit is deemed “inappropriate” but ipsedixit’s defamation of Last Man Standing is apparently OK to remain on view.

Complete crap on the part of those who “reported” my post. But, if that’s the way things go, then that’s the way things go. But it is not OK and I’ll take no further part discussing this here.

LMS - please feel free to PM me as your plans develop and I’ll try to help.

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Yes! Charge more, whether it’s $1300/week or $1300/day there are travelers at all levels and you need to make a profit. You can always offer low season discounts. And there will be people who cancel or demand a refund or just are too much to deal with to scrape by.

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@Harters I was thinking the same. While one person can insult someone, countering that becomes a crime. And this is not the first time I experienced it here. Honestly speaking, what I said in my first post, that I made enemies, and that I mentioned to Tom that it was not any misunderstanding, they still stand. I asked an honest question there too, and got badly hurt. I stopped coming here for a long time, and still I came back limping.
If anyone ever thought that I was a scammer, I know that I am not an important part of this forum. But I am not a scammer. I have never stolen a cent from anyone. I only posted what I grow. I didn’t try to sell them here. I didn’t try to make money here in any manner.
Here’s some of the threads I started. Do they look like I am a scammer?

Thanks for standing for me John, you have always been a great friend. I am sure that people around you in real life are lucky. I won’t return to this thread either.

Thank you very much everyone for your valuable answers. They gave me a lot to think about. But let’s end it here. I don’t want to return to this thread anymore.

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@LastManStanding You misunderstood my meaning. I was saying that as a potential customer, it is helpful to see what types of accommodations and transport are covered in a certain cost.

For eg, I have communicated with independent tour operators in central and south america and europe on occasion, where they will give a tentative itinerary and cost along with examples of the hotels they use and the transport (for eg for Machu Pichu there are different levels of trains, ditto for sectors in India, where there’s everything from basic to ultraluxe).

That way, as a customer I can go look at the hotel and gain a sense of comfort. I know tour operators and travel agents can get special pricing, so it wouldn’t surprise me to have a slightly cheaper price included than I could get myself.

So what I was suggesting was that for your brochure, instead of just saying “3 & 4 star” or “AC car”, you include “such as…” with pictures and examples. Goes a long way to give a stranger a sense of what you are offering.

A friend of mine is going to South Africa this summer with their extended family of 10, and has had the whole thing arranged via a travel agent at home with local independent tour guides in South Africa. They know the hotels, the transport, the food (they are vegetarian, so that’s especially important for them), and what all will be extra and estimates for the extras, before she put down her deposit. So she’s very comfortable with the whole set-up.

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