Who we are

Travel Business Guide is a small editorial team that writes for people who run travel agencies, tour operators, and hospitality businesses. We are not a booking platform, a franchise, or a software vendor. We publish research, practical guides, and interviews for owners and managers who need to make decisions about pricing, operations, marketing, and staffing.

We started in 2019 after our founder, a former tour operator in Portland, Oregon, kept getting the same questions from peers: how to price a multi-day tour, how to handle seasonality, how to train guides. There was no independent publication answering those questions with numbers and real examples. So we began writing them down.

What we do

We publish two to four articles per month. Each piece is based on interviews with operators, public filings, or our own surveys. We do not accept payment for coverage, and we do not sell leads or software. Our revenue comes from a paid newsletter and from workshops we run in Portland and Denver.

Our articles cover topics like:

• Pricing and margin analysis for small-group tours
• Staffing and retention for seasonal hospitality businesses
• Marketing channels that actually convert for tour operators
• Risk management and insurance basics

We focus on businesses with fewer than 50 employees, because that is where most operators work and where good information is hardest to find.

Our mission and values

Our mission is to give travel business owners the same quality of information that large companies pay consultants for. We believe that independent operators deserve clear, honest analysis without hype.

We hold to three values:

1. Accuracy over speed. Every number we publish is checked against a source. If we cannot verify a claim, we leave it out.
2. Independence. We do not take sponsorships from companies we cover. When we mention a vendor, it is because an operator told us it worked.
3. Practicality. We write for people who need to make a decision this week, not for an academic journal. If a guide does not include a template or a checklist, we do not publish it.

Why readers trust us

We have been writing for this industry for five years. Our founder still runs a small tour company in Oregon, so we test our advice in a real business. We correct errors publicly and keep a log of corrections on our website. Our survey data comes from our own readers, and we publish the raw numbers when we can.

We are not the biggest publication in travel. We are a small team that answers a specific need: helping small travel businesses survive and grow without guesswork.

Our team

Maya Chen, Editor
Maya spent eight years managing a boutique tour operator in San Francisco before joining us. She oversees all content and writes about pricing and operations.

David Okafor, Writer
David has worked in hospitality operations for a decade, including five years as a general manager of a 40-room inn in Vermont. He covers staffing and guest experience.

Elena Rossi, Research Assistant
Elena handles our surveys and data analysis. She is a graduate student in economics at Portland State University.

We also work with a network of freelance writers who have run travel businesses themselves. Every article is reviewed by at least one person who has owned or managed a travel business.

How to reach us

We welcome tips, questions, and corrections. Email us at editorial@travelbusinessguide.com. We read every message, though we cannot always reply quickly.