TP108 – How Matthew Smith is using his military experience to build multi-day tours with a difference.
Tour industry veteran and adventure specialist, Peter Syme, joins us today to share his perspective and advice on Matthew Smith’s multi-day tour business SOE Expeditions. This is a unique podcast episode of Tourpreneur as Matthew is at the early stage of building this particular tour business and he goes into detail for us about how to build a multi-day tour with a difference.
Matthew shares the type of clients who are booking his niche multi-day tours and the physical and mental endurance needed to complete them. We discuss how to find a balance between pricing and profit and how insurance and liability are managed for endurance tours. We also discuss marketing channels, raising awareness, the importance of testimonials, and the huge benefits people experience once they complete an endurance tour or challenge. We discuss the vitally important life skills and history of the S.O.E. executive operations.
What Matthew and his team have done here is a great demonstration of designing something that is unique.” – Peter Syme
Matthew Smith is the founder of S.O.E. Expeditions, a new 2020 tour provider that offers Special Operations Executive expeditions with authentic Special Forces endurance-based activities.
The expeditions simulate what it is like to go behind enemy lines on the daring sabotage missions carried out during WWII. Matthew joined the military in 1994 and passed airborne parachute and army commando selections, spending six years with Special Forces. He completed two six-month tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Born and raised on the west coast of Scotland, Matthew is an avid outdoorsman and a qualified survival, evasion, resistance, and escape instructor.
“We are all guilty at underpricing what we do.” – Peter Syme
This week on the Tour Operator Podcast Tourpreneur: How to build a multi-day business tour.
- The unique individuals who volunteered for the S.O.E. tours
- Who is booking tours with S.O.E. Expeditions and the equal interest from men and women
- The unique tours that will be a runaway success
- What separates these tours from traditional World War II tours
- How Matthew markets his tours to a niche segment of people
- How an overload of technology in modern life is changing the type of tours people want
- The team at S.O.E. Expeditions, including ultra-endurance and documentary personality Mark Beaumont
- How to find the right price and balance of profit for tours and experiences
- The social media channels suited for selling expensive tours and raising awareness
- Matthew’s and Peter’s dream trips they would like to create
- How Matthew handles insurance and public liability for his tours
- The level of fitness required for endurance tours and why mental endurance is more essential for success
- How conquering fear makes life easier and shows people they can do anything
- Why testimonials are a vital part of your marketing
Our Favorite Quotes:
- “What Matthew and his team have done here is a great demonstration of designing something that is unique.” – Peter Syme
- “It is novel; it is so different. It is a completely different product in the travel space.” – Peter Syme
- “We are all guilty at underpricing what we do.” – Peter Syme
- “Never undervalue any potential customer because things in life change.” – Peter Syme
- “You’ve got to believe in yourself and believe in your product.” – Matthew Smith
Connect with Matthew Smith:
Connect with Peter Syme:
- Peter Syme on LinkedIn
More information about the S.O.E. Special Operations Executive: - Churchill’s Secret Agents: The New Recruits – Netflix Documentary (reality tv show but authentic and worth a watch.)
- National Army Museum
- Award-winning author Clare Mulley tells the extraordinary story of Krystyna Skarbek (aka Christine Granville) – the first, and the longest-serving, female special agent working for Britain in the Second World War.
Exploring the World of Tour Operator Business
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More About Tourpreneur Host Shane Whaley
Shane Whaley
Shane Whaley is the Producer and Host of the Tourpreneur Podcast. He is also the curator in chief for the Tourpreneur Daily Brief. Shane has worked in the travel industry for almost twenty years.
