opening a new tour operator business

I assume you mean 4wd tour operator. In which state ?

Depending which state you are in, it may be worthwhile checking out what the State Government can do for you...some States support small business to some degree. For instance, in Qld, there is Smart Small Business. They can help you with things such as licences, business analysis, business names etc.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

Don't take this the wrong way, but just asking that question shows that you may not understand the industry.

I will try to help, I wanted to set up a tour operation 15 years ago ,shortly after starting in the industry, you might call it a pipe dream.

The advice I was given was to spend some time in the industry and find out how it works, after 9 years I finally had a crack at it, I wasn't until 3 years ago I was able to give it a red hot go when I purchased a portion of a friends company, I run it as a new entity, The guy I bought it off still to this day gives me advice.

I bought a day tour to Jim Jim and Twin falls, and in a year or so will have a go at the private charter side of things, I do some charter work now but going into the up market side will take a lot more effort.

In the N.T. you have to have a tour operator permit for all the National Parks, For Kakadu and Uluru we need (MUST HAVE) a uni course, this course is a tour guide accreditation.

We have to do a police check every 5 years for our operator accreditation, we need a commercial vehicle license, we need to have a medical and a police check for our license every 5 years.

We need a senior first aid certificate, we are getting our business accredited, that in itself is not easy.

Our cars have to be inspected every 6 months this includes a certified fire extinguisher all sign writing to be in good order, the car must be detailed just to pass inspection this is on top of the car being in good road worthy condition.

Then there is finding your market and the the 10s of thousands of $$$ marketing, then hoping it works.

I was lucky when I bought my business because a lot of the marketing was in place, this has been a big factor to my success.

Hope this helps.

Cheers steve.

You could always start with a ..... business plan!

Hi Luca, roughly 80 % of new businesses fail in the first year or two...of which 90% didn't have a business plan.
As mentioned above...seek some help form your State Govt Small Business Development Dept or a proven Business Coach or Advisor - remember you will get what you pay for, and don't get ahead of yourself.
"Plan the work and then work the Plan"
Good luck
Cheers
Alex

zumzum, send me a email with your phone number and I will put you in contact with FREE Goverment and Council run help for you if you are just starting a business....there are heeps of FREE training courses run that will be very helpful to you.

These people will also be able to point you in the right direction for any other assistance.

Not in the tourist industry but know people who are, you have to be certified through TAFE.

Send me your phone number to twoblackdogs@internode.on.net

Regards Richard

Guys what a fantastic response to a simple complicated question, well done, makes me proud to be an EO member