Inspire and Inform Your Travelers

Once you've hit that magic number and a trip is a reality looming on the horizon, it's important to continue engaging your group members—to fire them up, keep them informed, and help them feel comfortable with each other.

Here, group tour providers from various markets share their best practices for doing so.

Share good resources.

Research and recommend a good downloadable country information app for your clients to use. "There are so many apps out there that offer a ton of useful information designed to make travelers a bit more comfortable. Most of them work offline and include useful phrases, currency calculations, important information about money exchange, tipping, which taxis to take, etc. They are also much handier than traveling with a Lonely Planet or guidebook." Likewise, a good downloadable map will allow clients to investigate and plan ahead for their free time. "The more comfortable clients are with their surroundings, the less stress they will have when they venture off on their own for the day."
—Connor Frey, Private Groups Manager, North America, Intrepid Travel

E.D.I. Travel, Israel, has created a downloadable travel study book that includes a brief history of the region, detailed maps, information on the seasons, and summaries with photos and diagrams of sites visitors are likely to see—such as the Mount of Olives and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher—with space for visitors to record their own notes as they visit each location.

Facilitate group bonding.

"If the group is mostly local, I host a party for everyone to meet, and I try to serve food of the region to which we are going."
—Suzanne Drumm, Explorers Travel

To read more tips to inspire and inform your travelers, click here to read this article in its entirety in the digital edition of Groups Today magazine.

Photo courtesy of New Orleans School of Cooking.