Reflections on starting a new tourism business
Joe and Jo Doherty started thinking about setting up a guided walking business in Te Urewera back in 1997 when they were still living in Wellington. It took them ten years to realise the dream and it hasn’t all been plain sailing. This article is based on their experiences. It includes some practical tips on how to make a go of it, and some of the pitfalls to be aware of.
Joe, Jo & Te Urewera Treks
Joe Doherty (Ngai Tuhoe) was born and raised in the remote region of Te Urewera in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. He spent over 20 years as a senior public servant before returning home to Ngaputahi in 2003, with his wife Jo (from England) and their two small children. Before leaving Wellington they had established a small management consultancy business so they could keep paying the bills whilst getting their tourism venture up and running.
Joe’s dream, with support from Jo who’s background was in tourism marketing, was to start a guided walking business, taking visitors into the bush to experience the magnificence of the rainforest, the prolific native birdlife, to share local histories, and to provide an insight into Tuhoe’s way of life in this remote region.
In 2006, Te Urewera Treks was born. This is their story.
A local government official said to us once ‘Starting a tourism business is easy – all you have to do is buy a van and away you go.’
The challenges we faced
We identified early on, that it really was not that simple. While the barriers to entry are probably lower for setting up a tourism business, than for many other sectors, we faced some major challenges in setting up our business.
Informed by research, the key challenges we identified included:
- Infrastructure in the region was poor. The main road was narrow and windy with large stretches still unsealed. Accommodation and visitor services were also limited, and there were no cafes or public transport services. Our telephone line was terrible and when we set up, only dial-up internet was available.
- Awareness of the region was low with very limited regional promotion. There was no regional tourism organisation and no dedicated tourism coordinator on the council staff.
- The region was remote and with tourists usually on a tight travel plan, time to include Te Urewera in their itinerary was an issue. It also meant that getting professional assistance (e.g. IT support) or trades people was difficult and expensive.
- Traffic flows on the main road past the gate were low so there was no ready tourist market.
- There was a lack of local workers skilled in tourism, as well as locals that didn’t want tourism at all.
- We also needed to maintain an ongoing income whilst we set up the business.
- Managing the many other calls on our time including family, community work and cultural obligations, was also a key issue.
How we tackled the challenges
The lack of traffic, poor road, and distance from visitor flows led us to the decision to pick up our visitors in Rotorua rather than expect them to drive to us. That meant we needed to buy a van, gain our passenger service licences, and re-sit our driving tests. Our company also needed to become a licensed transport service operator. A few months, several exams, and about $15,000 later we had a van and were finally compliant.
The lack of accommodation in the area led us to offer day walks rather than overnight walks. However, we did want to offer longer experiences so we also decided to set up our own bush camp including six tent sites, hot showers, eco-toilet, communal area, BBQ, fireplace, and all the camping equipment. The bush camp is operational but still work in progress, and has so far cost over $15,000, excluding our labour of love.
The lack of regional awareness was our next challenge. Right from the start we knew we would need to work cooperatively with others if we were going to make progress. With the help of other tourism businesses, supporting organisations, and the community, we set up our own regional tourism group, known as Te Urewera Rainforest Route. Joe chairs this group, and Jo is Secretary. Since then we have attended TRENZ (NZs international tourism trade fair) twice, we have produced promotional material for the region, we have visited inbound tourism operators and we have hosted travel media. We are now looking to employ a paid tourism coordinator to take it to the next level.
Lack of tourism skills in the region is still a major issue. Te Urewera Rainforest Route is hoping to enable sponsored locals to undertake relevant tourism courses which will help in the medium to long term. For our own immediate needs, we are lucky in that a number of whanau (family) members have some of the key skills we are looking for: an intimate knowledge of the bush and great people skills.
Probably the biggest challenge we have faced is managing our time. Balancing the time needed to develop and run the business, with the needs to generate income to keep the bills paid and spend time with our young family, has been difficult. In addition, because of the range of skills we bring to a small community, we are both involved in a wide range of unpaid voluntary work. We have not yet mastered these many pulls on our time, and if anything has pushed us off course, it is committing too much time to wider community initiatives and not enough time to our business. In hindsight, would we have done it differently? Probably not.
The results
We are now heading into our second year with Te Urewera Treks. The business is nowhere near sustainable yet but we have been able to prop it up with the income we earn through the consultancy business. We have started to see some results from TRENZ which has already paid its way for us, and bookings for the 2008/09 season are looking promising, despite the current economic doom and gloom. We are hoping to be close to break even by the end of year three.
Having a great experience and marketing it well have been our focus to date.
The quality of the experience flows on to positive word of mouth, our most important marketing tool, as well as repeat customers in the future. To make sure the experience is as good as it can be, we survey all our guests to identify any weaknesses so we can continuously improve. We are also looking at getting Qualmark rated – to give visitors and the tourism trade the message that we are a quality experience, and here to stay. It will also enable us to participate in future Tourism New Zealand initiatives offshore.
In terms of marketing, we have actively hosted media to achieve free publicity. We have also hosted key influencers in the tourism industry – people whose opinions are respected, and who are in a position to recommend our business to potential clients. The internet and our brochure have also been key tools for us. Our business is promoted on a number of websites including the Tourism New Zealand website, the Rotorua website and Te Urewera Rainforest Route website. Our own website (www.teureweratreks.co.nz) generates most of our enquiries but needs more investment to maximize its effectiveness. In particular we want to develop an online booking
facility and to improve its ranking on search engines.
In terms of our brochure, to really make that work for us we need to have it displayed in many more places. However, that usually costs money so to date we have had to be very selective about it, and make the most of the free brochure displays that many accommodation establishments offer. We have also just started to place small ads in magazines that we know are read by the sorts of people interested in guided walks.
We know our marketing still has a long way to go, but we have a plan and we are making progress. We are also monitoring how effective each marketing tool is. That means we can carry on doing the things that work, and cut out those that don’t.
In summary
It has taken a very long time to get Te Urewera Treks up and running, and there were many times when we could easily have thrown in the towel. There have been many challenges along the way, but rather than deter us, perhaps in a perverse way, they have spurred us on.
The business has also cost a lot of time and money (over $60,000 so far) to set up. However, if it was all about making a profit, we would have simply continued to run our consultancy, which in comparison is very easy and very cheap to operate. However, our vision is much broader than that.
We can see the huge potential that tourism has for Te Urewera. As well as economic benefits, we believe that tourism, managed in a cooperative and strategic way, can make a positive difference to the social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of our region – and that it can help our struggling communities to thrive again.
Jo & Joe Doherty, August 2008
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