Spotlight Episode: Tour Amigo with Murray Decker, CEO

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In this spotlight episode, Murray Decker, CEO and founder of Tour Amigo, shares how his innovative technology platform is transforming the multi-day tour industry by equipping operators with cutting-edge reservation systems and seamless distribution capabilities.

Murray’s journey began as a Contiki tour guide in 2008, where he gained firsthand insight into the travel industry. By 2016, he founded Tour Amigo to address a glaring gap in travel technology: while day tours, accommodations, and flights had embraced digital solutions, multi-day tours remained stuck in the analog era.

The statistics Murray reveals are both surprising and inspiring. The multi-day tour market is expanding at an impressive 8-9% annually, even in the wake of COVID-19. Travelers are now spending $4,500-$5,000 per trip—nearly double the pre-pandemic average of $2,500. Yet, when Tour Amigo first introduced the concept of APIs to tour operators, the response was often, "What is an API?" This disconnect highlighted a massive opportunity in what Murray estimates to be a $300 billion global market.

Whether you're a tour operator seeking to modernize, an investor exploring the next big travel tech innovation, or simply someone intrigued by the evolution of the travel industry, this episode is packed with invaluable insights. Murray’s vision for the future of multi-day tours is not just about technology - it’s about unlocking the full potential of an industry poised for extraordinary growth.

Tune in to discover how Tour Amigo is leading the charge in this remarkable transformation. Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Murray!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I think the industry although you know people say, oh
, are people still doing tours?
It is.
The stats are showing that itis growing 8 to 9% year on year,
even after COVID, and that'snot just a rebound.
It was growing at that sort ofpace beforehand.
I think we could go into thedifferent trends.
You know like people want toget off the beaten path and then
once they get off the beatenpath, that area is no longer off

(00:25):
the beaten path and there'sadventure travel, there's hiking
, there's health and wellness isobviously on the rise there as
well, but it's maybe we mightsee some digital detoxing tours
coming up soon where you can'thave Wi-Fi or phones or laptops.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I would love to do hello everyone and welcome to a
special spotlight edition oftravel trends.
This is your host, danchristian, and today we're going
to be speaking to murray decker, the ceo and founder of tour
amigo.
Now, as you'll hear in theconversation, murray and I have
known each other for a number ofyears.
We both worked at the travelcorporation.
He started as a tour guide withbrands like Contiki, so he

(01:06):
really understands the multi-daytour space and he's actually
gone on to build this successfulcompany, tour Amigo, given his
understanding of multi-day tourand the opportunity that exists
to create a marketplace and aplatform so that companies like
WeRoad, one of the companies I'man advisor for, can make their
trips bookable with thirdparties all over the world.
And that's only part of the TourAmigos story.

(01:27):
So I wanted to bring Murray ontoday to showcase the growth
around multi-day, their platformand what they're working on,
and then also how it relates tocruise and river cruise some of
the topics we've talked about onthis podcast as they've moved
into those categories as well.
So there's very few people thatare as well versed in the
multi-day tour space as Murrayand I really wanted to bring him

(01:48):
on Travel Trends to be able tohave this conversation.
So, murray, great to have youon Travel Trends.
Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
For sure.
I've so enjoyed getting to seeyou over the past year.
Obviously, you and I worktogether and we have some quite
a few common connections, andyou've built this incredibly
successful company, tour Amigo,that we're going to talk more
about.
But I'd love for all of ourlisteners to get a bit more of
an understanding of your journeywithin the travel industry,
because you were in many waysahead of the curve with being in

(02:16):
the touring space, and nowyou've built a touring
technology company that isreally poised for great success
over the next five to 10 years,and I want to get your take on
that as well, of course, buttell everyone a little bit about
your background, murray and howyou got into the travel
industry.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah well, my background was not heading down
the travel industry pathoriginally.
I was studying marketing andaccounting at university,
finished that, went into bankingand that lasted about six
months and then I flew over tothe UK because I'm originally
from Australia and poured beersat the pubs and lived and worked
above them and it just sohappened that the travel
corporation at one of the pubslived two doors down and I

(02:54):
started to get to know them on aFriday afternoon and eventually
walked in and asked for see ifthey had a job.
That was available and that jobwas being a tour guide all
through Europe.
So I actually started my careerwith Busabout and Katiki, a
tour guide all over Europe.
I then specialised in Greeceand Spain and I did that for
about five to six seasons.
I toured, guided for two andthen went into operations for

(03:17):
the other three.
I then moved to Asia andexpanded Busabout into Asia and
all the different products there, and then, lastly, I got
poached by GeoAdventures andworked for GeoAdventures as
their operations manager inAustralia.
So that was sort of my journeyin the touring space.
I also went into Flight Centreand did procurement and
corporate and along that journeyI obviously had a lot of

(03:42):
passengers that I knew, friendsand family that were all
traveling, and I seem to be thego-to person for them to ask
which operator should they betraveling with, based on their
demographic, based on theirbudgets, etc.
And I found that I hadtemplates saved, like set
templates, say, for differentareas, for different age groups,
for different operators,operators.

(04:08):
And what that prompted was thefirst iteration of Tour Amigo,
in that I built an affiliatewebsite similar to like an OTA,
to aggregate and normalize theinformation, because I thought
the biggest problem in theindustry was that there wasn't
an online resource at that timefor travelers to go to and look
at the different results andfind just friendly advice, and
hence where Tour Amigo, tourFriend, came from, it's just
friendly advice.
That isn't sort of as a travelagent.

(04:32):
However, as we progress withthat, I also found that when we
were sort of saying to the touroperators, can you send us
through your API as opposed toExcel spreadsheet, the response
at that stage was what is an API?
Yeah, exactly, and we realizedthat, although it was a very big
problem and there's been manygreat companies that have come

(04:53):
up since then to solve thebusiness-to-consumer front end
that there was a big gap in themarket and exploring why that
was a big gap in the market fortour operators to have booking
and reservation software andconsequently distribution APIs.
So while I was sort of buildingthat, I also created my own
tour company.
That was private groups andcorporate groups throughout

(05:15):
Greece.
So I had firsthand experienceof the spreadsheets, the
budgeting sheets, the supplierpain points and creating your
own sort of bespoke quoteitineraries.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Very cool.
Now let's put it in context fora bit of a timeline, for all of
our listeners too, given thatyou have such relevant
experience.
And again, that's where ourlisteners obviously will hear
the points of connectivitybetween us with the Travel
Corporation, with Contiki andBusaboot, and then G Adventures
as well, and, of course, flightCenter has been a big partner
and sponsor of our show, andI've worked with Flight Center
for many years, so you aresomeone that really gets this

(05:48):
industry, understands this space, and that's why I wanted to
have you as part of thisdiscussion about touring and the
incredible rise of thiscategory and what's projected
over the next decade, which iswhy we're seeing a lot of
private equity and VC firmsinvesting in these companies.
Obviously, you've recentlytaken on a round of investment,
which is incredibly exciting andcertainly reflects where this

(06:09):
industry is headed.
But just in terms of breakingdown some of the timing, when
you first took up the job atContiki, what year are we
referring to here?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Trying to show my age here.
No, I started in 2008.
2008 is when I first started.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's it, Okay, cool .
Now the reason I wanted toshare that with our listeners is
because many people, includingmyself to a large extent
obviously you want to get aheadquickly and you want to put in
your, but you need to put inyour time and effort, and I
certainly have learned that, andclearly you have as well.
And so you know, an overnightsuccess with Tour Amigo actually
goes all the way back to 2008with actually learning how a

(06:47):
business like Contiki operates,because you wouldn't have
understood the pain points oftour operators, you wouldn't
have understood that they'rebehind in their technology and
the concept of API.
So, yeah, so you started withContiki in 2008.
And then let's let's take a bigjump forward to when you
actually founded Tor Amigo.
What year was that?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
So it would have been around 2016, 17, when it was
the first online travel agencymodel, like as an affiliate
model.
The ideation came around 2014or 15, and that was on a plane.
I wrote the business plan onthe back of an airplane sick bag
, which I've still got.
It's gobbledygook, it doesn'tlook like anything, but I was

(07:24):
going to revolutionize thein-flight magazines, and then by
the time the plane landed Irealized I had no idea as to how
to write a magazine, or theairline industry or the budget
to do it.
But I did realize that a partof that concept map was tours,
and so that's when it sort ofreally started, and I think in
the last three to four years iswhen we've really become that
B2B distribution as well as thesoftware.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, and that's great, because that's the other
thing.
So, knowing that 2016, here weare in 2025.
So we're really nine years andall of a sudden, people are now
hearing and talking about TourAmigo.
You're at every event.
Finally, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I tried to wear the loudest shirt to get the answers
out there, but it didn't seemto work.
But my aggressive salmon shirtis doing its trick now, I think.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Oh, that's awesome.
Well, hopefully, those peoplewho are listening to this on
audio on their streamingplatform of choice will check
out some of the clips on ourYouTube channel, instagram, as
well, because you can seeMurray's amazing salmon colored
shirt, which, literally, asMurray knows, I walked into
World Travel Market last yearand he was the first person I
saw, because I instantly spottedhim.
I was like, oh, where's Waldo?

(08:27):
But it's actually like youstood out like a sore thumb and
we had a great catch up.
You were just free for ameeting and we had about 20
minutes to catch up and it was.
It was lovely to see you and tocatch up with you right away,
but, yeah, I'd never would haveseen you.
So I'm actually thinking youknow I wear these black t-shirts
.
I'm thinking next year might bethe year of color for travel
trends.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Maybe I need bright red.
It's starting to spread.
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot morecolor now.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
It used to be blue black and red Nice.
And obviously you know fromBusabout too, because that was
always bright orange right therewas, you know brands yeah.
G Adventures is purple.
Brands have their color andthey in the color, and you've
developed brand equity.
I would absolutely say in touramigo with the salmon, because
if anyone else is wearing asalmon shirt, I think people are
going to rush up to them.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Be murray, is that you and uh yeah, is it one of
your teams expanding, expandingdrastically?
You know, yeah, exactly okay,cool.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
So the other thing I wanted to chat about was as part
of the genesis story.
Uh, it's understandable thatmany businesses go through
pivots and evolve and adapt asyou get product and market fit,
which you now have, and that'sobviously why the investment and
why you're scaling the business.
Obviously, you've got animpressive CTO you've brought on
board, but let's talk about thebusiness plan.

(09:36):
You put on the back of a sickbag.
So remind us again I know youtalked about Tor Amigo being
like your friend, so tell uswhat the original vision was and
then how you've evolved that towhat it's become today.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, so the original business plan was a
business-to-consumer websitethat people could go on to.
They could type in multipledifferent destinations and put
in multiple filters and find thetour that suited their budgets,
needs, dates, times, duration,and then, if they wanted to book

(10:10):
it, they would be redirected asan affiliate onto the tour
operators platform.
So we were actually quitesuccessful with that in the
early days because we focused onsort of off the beaten path
areas before off the beaten pathbecame a thing.
But it was great for SEO and itwas great for the traction that
we had from there and that wasbuilt on.
I built that off a WordPresswebsite, so it was just.

(10:33):
It was a very basic site.
I wouldn't want to share whatit looks like now because you
look back on those things andget a little bit embarrassed as
to look, but it worked.
And then we turned it into aonline travel agency.
We got some government grantfrom Australia and then we
turned it into a online travelagency.
Uh, we got some uh governmentgrant, um, from australia and we
actually turned it into abooking engine, which is when we
faced a lot of the.
We saw a lot of the pain pointsfor the, the operators um that

(10:57):
were sending through theproducts cool.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's super helpful, and I'm just going to pull up
the way back machine just to seeexactly what tour amigo looked
like in 2016 2017 oh um, buttell all of our listeners, uh,
where you're from, where you'rebased, obviously, um, I think
that's interesting for people toknow, especially now that you
are really you've become more ofa global nomad, given the way
that, uh, I know you're in newyork today for this conversation
.
But, yeah, just tell everyone,uh, where you're based, where

(11:21):
you're're from and where youlive now, which is pretty global
.
I know Greece is one of yourbases.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, so my home base and where I was born was
actually Brisbane, australia,queensland.
So I do have a base there, butI do spend about five months on
the road and a lot of that isover in Europe and UK where
we're growing quitesubstantially, and now at the
end of the year I'm always overhere in the US so I do sort of

(11:48):
it's mainly centered around thebig travel trade shows like
USTOA coming up in the US thisweek and World Travel Market and
Travel Tech Show in the UK.
That's sort of our main forNITV potentially Got it Okay,
cool.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Awesome, and I have used the Wayback Machine and I
do have an image.
And I have used the WaybackMachine and I do have an image.
I'll have to share itafterwards Because it's I always
find it so fascinating for allof us going on these journeys,
because our lives evolve andchange, businesses evolve and
change and you can see where youstarted, where you've come to.
But awesome, okay, so nowyou're in New York, you're
headed to USTOAA.

(12:21):
Tell us a little bit about howyou've structured the business
for 2025.
And tell us a bit more aboutthis particular investment that
you had to really scale thebusiness.
You've got some Singapore-basedinvestors, but, yeah, tell us
how you were successfully ableto get funding.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Well with the current investors.
They were probably the firstones actually that wanted to
talk to our team to find out theexpertise and understand the
gap in the market.
It's a hard gap to show topeople because, primarily, a lot
of the bookings and these touroperator products have been
completely offline.
So the travel agencies know howlucrative it is and how many

(13:02):
bookings are being made per yearand how it's rising 9% year on
year, but that's not visible tothe rest of the market.
What was visible was day-to-dayactivities, which was getting
hundreds of millions of dollarsput into them.
It was the accommodationsbefore that, it was the flights
before that to digitalize it.
So this really is sort of thatlast tourism vertical.
And that's where these currentinvestors saw a significant gap

(13:26):
in the market for a true SASmodel, a cloud-based solution,
and also saw that there wasn'tthat many competitors in the
market.
So they really backed our team.
Is where they've was whatcompelled them to.
But, granted, I would havespoken to about 500 investors
before that over the four orfive years.

(13:47):
Uh, and these are the ones that, um, luckily saw what we're
seeing and can sort of see wherethe industry is going to be
going in that next sort of twoto three years that's very
exciting.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
And of course there's tour amigo, and one of the
things we should chat about toois cruise amigo, given that you
have just like, actually, withour season four, we did kind of
deep dive into adventure, whichis related to touring, and
obviously this is part of ourseason five touring series, but
we also did a series on cruiseand really there's a lot of
similarities, and you know thisas well that a lot of tour
operators own river cruise lines.

(14:20):
That sort of was a kind of anatural extension, and you're
seeing river cruise lines thatwas a kind of a natural
extension, and you're seeingriver cruise companies even now
move into touring, and sothere's a lot of crossover
between those two, not in termsof the travelers and the guest
experience, but also theoperator.
So we'll come to that in aminute.
But let's talk a bit about themulti-day tour like tour
operators and I know you workwith DMCs as well, destination

(14:42):
management companies and so tellus a little bit about the Tour
Amigo platform that you built,customized really for tour
operators, knowing that therewas this challenge with
technology in the marketplace,and there's quite a bit of
functionality you've built intothe platform.
So walk us through.
For the tour operators that arelistening to this to try and

(15:03):
wrap their head around is TourAmigo for them?
Walk us through how you'veevolved and rolled out the
product and, I guess, where itstands today, in 2025, for
companies looking to work withyou.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, look, the unique advantage we had is that
we were able to start from ablank canvas.
So we started from scratch witha system that we thought would
suit the industry.
So we started from scratch witha system that we thought would
suit the industry and it wascoincidentally around COVID time
when we were sort of buildingout the blueprint and
infrastructure.
And how we've done it is thatwe do like a digital blueprint

(15:35):
that people can actually use anddemo.
And we provided that to many,many different tour operators at
the time who had a bit of sparetime on their hands from the
very large international ones toDMCs, to private bespoke
operators, to your mum and paoperators and got them to test
it and play with the wholesystem.

(15:56):
And that actually proved to beincredibly successful because we
could actually change a lot ofthings around and a lot of
functionalities around, a lot ofthe design around, to suit that
sort of feedback.
And then we started actuallyputting code to paper.
That was a significantadvantage to us from what was in
market at the time and stillprobably is that.

(16:16):
There's some terrific companiesout there.
A lot of it is custom builtsolutions for the larger
businesses and we thought thereshould be a platform that can
cover all sizes of businessesand scale with them, similar to
your other SaaS softwares likeyou know, your accounting
systems that you can do a oneperson business operation all
out to hundreds and thousands ofdifferent employees in the one

(16:37):
system.
And that's what we've been ableto create and then, along the
way we've always always, when wedevelop something for clients
or any sort of requests, it ismade available.
We have that.
That's the advantage of thecommunity, the SaaS community.
So it's not like we'reproducing a customized feature
that is a paid upgrade.
You don't have to pay forreports or anything like that.

(16:58):
It's just one fee and itincludes everything, with all
the upgrades as well as newfeatures and functionalities,
and that allows us to moveincredibly quick to get to the
same functionality that othersmight have had over 15 to 20
years.
We've been able to do in a year.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, I know a number of tour operators that work
with you because they want toleverage the platform for
distributing their product, andso I have mentioned.
It's interesting when I'mspeaking to other tour operators
and they mentioned, oh, we workwith Tour Am, tour amigo, and
they're excited to mention itbecause they're like we, we're
bookable.
Now we're, uh, we're.
So, yeah, tell us maybe the twoor three reasons why you're

(17:35):
seeing tour operators choose theplatform and if you wouldn't
mind to break down some of thethe costs involved, if you
wouldn't mind just to give kindof tour operators an idea,
because you do work with quite arange like small and
medium-sized operators.
So, yeah, tell us a bit moreabout that, because I'm I'm
always intrigued when I hearcompanies that are working with
you, and so I've, uh, as we'rechatting today, trying to wrap

(17:57):
my head around and share withour listeners the reasons why
they would, uh, they would, theyare choosing tour, yeah so,
look, there's three main reasons.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
The first one is that we provide them with a bookable
API.
When I say bookable, I mean atwo-way API, so when a booking
is made on someone else'splatform, the passenger's
details automatically fall intotheir reservation system.
That is a significantdifference to most other
companies that's all mostcompetitors out there just
because they can connect intotheir own platform, their own

(18:27):
website, the Tour Operatorswebsite, but we can actually
connect them into hundreds ofdifferent travel agencies,
online travel agencies at theirrequest or in our community
already.
So we're probably the onlycompany operating company that
can increase their bookingsbecause of that distribution
network and that this bookableAPI can be part of our ecosystem

(18:48):
.
The second thing is the trueSaaS sort of model, so, and that
sort of ties into the pricingas well.
So this is you can be off theshelf, you can be set up in days
on this platform.
For a small operator, we'rejust launching a self-signup,
which we will call like the TourAmigo Lite version, which is
basically for connectivity, forenabling them to be bookable on

(19:10):
their own website, enabling themto be distributed out to other
online travel agencies andtravel agencies, or simply
allowing agents to use their B2Bagent portal that they can log
into and make the bookings.
So it's just to drive moreefficiency and bookings for them
.
And the last part of that SaaSis the community.
So what I was just mentioningbefore, that it's a constantly

(19:31):
upgrading and evolving system.
So we are releasing newfeatures of budgeting, like
projecting costs to actual costs, automating supplier
communications, actually havingsupplier portals, their vendors,
payment solutions to pay theirown.
Everyone focuses on paymentgateways for B2C.
It's a huge pain point becauseyou might have 20 different

(19:54):
vendors or components on onetrip that you need to pay as an
operator, and that could be theaccommodation, that could be
your transfers, it could be yourguides on the ground.
So we have put in paymentsolutions and payment
functionalities for that.
So it's those sort of featuresthat really attract operators of
all different sizes, and thosepricing models can start from as

(20:17):
little as like $175 USD a monthand that can be up to five
users as the light version, andthen it can always go all the
way up to the pro, which isyou're looking around your $400
per user per month and,depending on how many users you
have, that's where it goes.
Very rarely do we have upfrontfees, unless it is some

(20:37):
customized work or integrations.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's great.
I appreciate you sharing thatbecause I think it's really
helpful context for ourlisteners, especially to kind of
quickly cut through and see ifit's right for them, because I
know you do have a number ofsmaller operators, and that
makes sense, given howaffordable, flexible but also
highly specialized the tech isfor exactly what their needs are
.
And there's so many smalleroperators out there, as you well

(21:02):
know.
And that's where I think it'sgoing to be really exciting over
the next five or 10 years, asthere's going to be more
consolidation in the marketplace.
We're going to see more newentrants scaling rapidly, being
acquired.
It's going to be a fun,exciting time for both of us.
I think this is, I'm convinced,this is going to be the most
exciting time of both of ourcareers as we track this space

(21:24):
over the next decade, given thedemographic factors in
particular that are at play, asmore people are coming into the
multi-day touring category andalso younger travelers are also
choosing it as well.
Obviously, you're based inAustralia.
You know these brands Intrepidbeing a great example, of course
, of multi-day tour, small groupadventures that their business

(21:45):
is set to double in the nextfive years.
So let's talk a little bitabout Cruise because I'm keen to
know how that came into the mix.
I mean, cruise is not abackground or specialty for me.
Obviously, you didn't grow upon the Cruise side of the
business either.
So how and when did you decideto add Cruise, and how different
is that to what you had builtfor tour operators?

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah.
So look, we see cruising aspretty much touring, but on the
sea or on the river.
It's still a multi-day package,it's still got different
components in it and it's justthe mode of transport.
So we have companies not justin cruise but on rail.
They can be on bicycle, itdoesn't have to be a traditional
30-seater, 50-seater coach withit.

(22:27):
We got into cruise by demand.
We had people coming to us andsaying, look, if you can do it,
this, can you actually help usout?
And the most complex part of itis the cabin, the cabin
selections and the cabin layoutsand whatnot.
Fortunately for us, our CTOcame from 30 to 40 years at
TravelTech and a cruisebackground, and a lot of our
different developers have acruise and touring API

(22:50):
background as well.
So we always built this withthe mindset of the API first and
then building it backwards,because we had that luxury,
whereas a lot of people havebuilt the products and now
trying to tack on an API on topof it, whereas a lot of people
have built the products and nowtrying to tack on an API on top
of it.
So that was a huge, significantadvantage because a lot of the.
That's why I think a lot ofpeople went through some of the
major cruise companies, likeTravelTech, because it was so

(23:12):
difficult for them to build anAPI, whereas what they can do
now is actually put their shipsinto our system.
They can actually set up alltheir cabins.
We can have cabin rules, likein terms of if there's a mixed
room or a single gender room,and you can actually
automatically allocate some intothose different cabins.
You can view the cabins, whichbasically puts them as bookable

(23:36):
online on their own website aswell as through other selling
partners.
And that's been the mainattraction, and we've seen some
really significant growth in theriver cruising operators that
we have.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, no, it's such a smart decision, not only to
bring in Stuart Chesterton, whoI got a chance to meet at World
Travel Market as well, andsubsequently a number of people
have mentioned him to me abouthis background.
So this is where your team, asyou've built out the business,
obviously you've expanded theteam and their expertise in new

(24:08):
markets.
So the thing I'd also like toask you when I you know, I know
a number of these customers ofyours, but I would love if you
wouldn't mind sharing, just tokind of point out what would be,
I guess, some best-in-classexamples of clients that use
your Tor product.
I know you're global, so youhave customers in Greece and New

(24:29):
Zealand and Australia and Asia,but who would you kind of call
out as one or two examples ofclients that have been
leveraging Tor Amigo on the Toroperator side, and where are you
today on the cruise side?
Is it just getting started orhave you already actually
established some larger accounts?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
No, we've actually already established accounts.
So, like great examples andsort of early adopters, of us
was Active Adventures, based inNew Zealand, but they also have
their Austin Adventures.
So we've had a terrificpartnership with them.
They're a fantastic product andthat's been testament for their
patience with us.
But then also, um, alsochanging a lot of their

(25:07):
processes and systems to adoptto a standard way of operating
and also getting themselvesonline and expanded out to other
selling partners as well.
Um, kiwi rail and great journeysin new zealand.
Um, so they're doing tours onthe rail.
So we actually have that wholesort of system connected with
the rail system.
Um, that allows them to put allthose packages together.

(25:30):
Uh, then there's also murrayriver paddle steamers.
Ironically enough, could youbelieve, our first proving
company had my name in it.
But uh, craig's been fantasticthere.
Like uh from murray riverpaddle steamers, who has has
several ships that go up anddown the Murray River and that's
a classic example.
He's got a three-day, five-dayand seven-day trips.

(25:50):
He's building new ships as wellto go up the paddle steamer,
should I say up the river, andit's really expanded his
business.
And then we've got heaps of DMCsover in Europe and we're
finding that we always getrecommended because we can
accommodate for the differentsizes.
So we would have at least twoor three referrals from each

(26:13):
customer, which gives testamentto the product, our team, but
then also this will be otheroperators that they might be
contracting like a DMC andthey're like can you help us
make that easier and help theDMC?
And then we go to that DMC andthen they go well, we want to
also be connected into a travelagency and then that leads us
into a new travel agency, a newclient, and the travel agency

(26:33):
says, well, can you get us moretour operators and DMCs?
We want to have this product,this operator and this river
cruising company.
And then it just compounds.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Very cool.
And then the journey you're onnow with enhancing the platform.
I'm assuming that, given notonly have you added cruise, but
there's going to be continuedpressure to build out the
platform as you bring on moreoperators, one of the things
that we both see, I'm sure, isthat every business is different
.
They all have their.
You know you mentioned ActiveAdventures and Austin Adventures

(27:03):
.
Those are great examplesbecause I know EJ Gamboa, who
works there.
He worked with me at the TravelCorporation for a number of
years and led our team inAustralia, asia Pacific, and I
know he's now the chief growthofficer over there and they've
been going from strength tostrength and it kind of
highlights exactly what we'rediscussing, which is that there
is major growth in this space,exactly what we're discussing,

(27:24):
which is that there is majorgrowth in this space.
So where are you seeingpressure from partners to build
out the platform and what's sortof ahead in your roadmap for
2025 and beyond?

Speaker 1 (27:31):
So we're very happy where the products are at.
We've made unbelievableprogress over the last year and
a lot of what we're doing now istweaking and also enhancing,
because I think you've got to.
We're always innovating andputting new products in, but
you've also got to remember togo back and keep everything up
to date and all the differentsections up to date and make

(27:54):
sure that they're all stillworking as efficiently and
optimal as possible.
But we've got we can see a lotof demand for more private,
bespoke quoting as well asgroups, and we are updating that
module as we speak and thatwill be released in the quarter
one next year in about January,february and that is really

(28:17):
advanced.
So I mean, anyone can builditineraries, don't get me wrong
and that's fantastic.
The complication is when youwant to tie it to costings and
expenses and suppliers andvendors and you can't drag and

(28:37):
drop at that stage because thevendor might not be available on
day two if you drag him fromday four to day two.
So this is where we have a hugepricing and commercial model
there, where it's basically theycan actually cost out all of
their projections, they canactually automate all of their
supplier communications, so whenthey get a request in.
You can narrow down whichsuppliers is going to be
suitable.
Send them out emails to confirmavailability.
More for that private bespokearea.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Awesome.
And then let's talk about wherethis industry is headed
together.
I think that's going to beinteresting to our listeners and
certainly I'd love to get yourtake on where you think touring
is specifically headed.
So oftentimes, when we'relooking for investment, we're
trying to make sure we haveproduct market fit, which
clearly you have, but one of themost important elements that
investors are looking for issomething that gets referred to
as a TAM, which is many of ourlisteners may know this, but I

(29:23):
always want to bring everyonealong on the journey and never
use acronyms that people aren'tfamiliar with, but total,
addressable market.
And so when you look at the TAMfor Tour, amigo, what sort of
projections have you put aroundthat and how do you see this
industry, the touring industryspecifically, growing globally
over the next five to ten years?

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah, it's a good question.
The tam is, depending on yourdefinition of it.
Um, how people it's?
It's very difficult to pinpointa number because and and that's
part of the reason why this isa gap it's a fragmented industry
and it depends on what you tieinto the industry.
So we've estimated on our side,like that it would be $300

(30:04):
billion TAM and it's more basedon what we would estimate, the
revenue or the transactions thatare going through in the
industry and then looking atother parts of the industry.
So where do you stop with thismarket?
So, like travel agencies areputting together private bespoke
packages, does that come underthe multi-day tour?
So we've sort of started usingmore of the term of complex

(30:29):
itineraries because you can gointo sporting events, you can go
into, you know, religioustravel, educational travel,
festivals.
You know like we have theOlympics coming up in Queensland
in 2031 or two, and that's youknow.
Are we going to be working withthe local council to produce a

(30:49):
system that they can package?
You know a three-night staywith a two-day entry with a.
You know a one-night dinnerwith one of the athletes.
That can also be categorisedinto this space.
We're categorising in a lot ofriver and ocean cruising, but it
doesn't actually just have tobe these massive ships.
It could be a three-dayliveaboard scuba diving trip, it

(31:10):
could be a two-day safari,african safari.
It doesn't have to be.
It could be with the family orit could be with a private group
of someone turning 50.
We just see that there'smultiple verticals where our
system can be adapted to withoutany sort of major iterations or
changes, and that's why we seeit as a very large growth model

(31:32):
there.
I think the industry althoughyou know that people say, oh is
it is?
Are people still doing tours?
It is the.
The stats are showing that isgrowing eight to nine to 9% year
on year, even after COVID, andthat's not just a rebound.
It was growing at that sort ofpace beforehand.
I think we could go into thedifferent trends.
You know like people want toget off the beaten path and then

(31:53):
, once they get off the beatenpath, that area is no longer an
off the beaten path and there'sadventure travel, there's hiking
, there's health and wellness isobviously on the rise there as
well, but it's uh, maybe wemight see some digital detoxing
tours coming up soon where youcan't uh, can't have wi-fi or
phones or or laptops, um which Iwould love to do it one stage,

(32:15):
but yeah exactly well.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Actually, when I spoke to uh shannon who runs uh
adventure and Trade Association,he was highlighting the number
of operators that they have thatactually highlight the fact
that you don't have Internetconnectivity in your rooms.
You may have it just in themain lodge, and part of the
appeal is exactly what youdescribed as people actually
getting off the grid andactually being able to have a
proper holiday, and so digitaldetox is a real thing for many

(32:42):
people, including myself forsure.
No-transcript.

(33:10):
You know Travis and the teamwell, but I would highlight that
as kind of one of the earlierexamples of trying to raise
awareness amongst investorsabout the size and potential of
this industry, because it'sexactly what you just described,
which is that most people seeit as a declining market and
companies like the TravelCorporation, where I was for
many years, saw that as theyacquired other multi-day tour

(33:33):
operators that there was anincredible sunset that has
actually turned into arenaissance, I would say, in
many ways, given demographicsand also just changing customer
behavior.
So the $300 billion is afascinating one, because
certainly Shannon thinks thatit's a trillion dollars or
higher if you start to add inthe other categories, but your
number is very when you add upthe number of companies and the

(33:55):
size of, there's quite a fewoperators that are doing a
billion dollars in multi-daytour, and so when you just add
those up alone, you can realizethat this is a massive space.
And then you start looking atall the adjacent markets and
it's um, so, yes, it's so.
The other thing you alsomentioned was the eight to nine
percent growth rate, and that'ssomething that I obviously have

(34:16):
found fascinating with some ofthe modeling is that it's
actually compound growth andthat, um, that it's.
And some projections are evenhigher, you know, 10 or 15, as
high as 20, depending on thecategory, like the exact niche
within the multi-day tourcategory, like adventure, or
that are seeing more significantgrowth and that is expected to

(34:36):
continue at that pace for thenext five or 10 years.
So this is where you know I'm,I'm, I'm bullish on this sector
and I think many, many morepeople are becoming so like,
like yourself, and obviouslyinvestors that are kind of
realizing that there is anopportunity here because, unlike
VC investments, where you'rerelying on a 10x, 100x, 1000x

(34:58):
type return, a lot of privateequity have gotten into this
space because if $1 can make twoand two can make four and you
can start to see the growth thatcompound interest.
You know there is substantialreturns to be made here as more
and more people choose thissector, so I think that's fast.
But you also mentioned some ofthe other trends that you're
seeing, and I'd love to get yourtake on those too, murray.

(35:21):
So obviously you've set thestage for the touring space, but
what are some of the otherdevelopments that you're paying
attention to as far as thetrends for 2025, with what
you're seeing from your partnersor even from your own travels?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Definitely a higher spend, like where pre-COVID
would have been 2,500 USD perpassenger.
On average we're seeing itbeing around 4,500 to 5,000 USD.
Sometimes that is a combinationthat they might be doing two
trips at once.
So we expect that to level outa little bit.
But it has been a very muchhigher purchasing of either one

(36:00):
product or multiple products.
You know the value of spend.
We're seeing quite a few daytour operators coming into the
multi-day and I think they'vebeen dabbling with it for some
time but they've never hadreally a system where they could
do both.
And that's where we're workingwith quite a few of them so that
they could actually manage boththeir multi-day and day tours
in one system.
And some of the operators mighthave, you know, 50 day tours%

(36:24):
multi-day tours, which makessense because if they can put
the accommodation in, it's nottoo difficult for them to
combine three one-day tours intoone and then create an overall
package.
They usually see much bettermargins from it.
But right now they've had to beoperating on either two
different systems or usually themulti-day tours was completely
offline.
So we've seen that.

(36:45):
Uh, in terms of you know, Ithink everyone's been talking
about the adventure travel forquite some time off the beaten
um path travel.
Uh, I we've seen quite a fewpeople combining like a day,
like a multi-day land tour witha either a river cruise or an
ocean cruise.
Uh, so it could be twodifferent companies but
combining those together and andyeah, we're just uh it's it's

(37:11):
other sort of specialties of, uh, either cycling cycling's being
huge, um, the cycling tours,and I think that's been around
for a little bit now.
Uh, what we're hoping, uh we'reseeing in 2025 is a lot more
private, bespoke packages, sowe're just seeing a lot more
demand for that.
I know they've always beenaround, but we're just seeing a
lot more demand for that.

(37:32):
I think people are being veryselective as to where they're
traveling.
When I say people, I mean thetravelers, the passengers, where
they're traveling and are happyto spend a higher amount for a
really unique and valuableexperience.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
That's interesting.
The one other trend I was goingto say, to just add to that,
murray, that I'm keen to see issolo female travelers.
Is that something that standsout in your platform or what
you're seeing with guests aswell?
I know that.
Get your Guide, for example,called that out recently, so,
and a number of operators areseeing you know female travelers
, but specifically, which is whythey travel in, in in groups
and group travel.
So is that something that stoodout to you as well?

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Um, somewhat, we we haven't noticed a huge changing
trend behind it, but, um, it'snot something that, uh, that
we've actually fully noticedwith it, but it's uh, uh, it
could be also happening with alot of different other operators
, uh, depending on.
It'd probably be better to seeit through, get your guide,
because they'll have a lot moreof the consumer trends on or

(38:32):
who's actually paying for it.
Um, but I think with multi-daytouring, it's always been, um,
like there's a much higherpercentage of of females that
travel on multi-day tours andorganized package tours than it
is, um, males.
Um, even when I was tourguiding, the groups were 70 to
80 females and it would beusually solo females or

(38:55):
traveling in twos or threes as agroup, but still going on the
group tour got it.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
So I got a slightly different question then.
Just it, which is what you juststarted to highlight just solo
travelers in general in youranalysis, if you will, because
obviously you're seeing thebooking activity, are you for
most group tours?
Uh, and I know this fromexperience with different brands
in terms of like, if you modelthem based on, you know, one
passenger, you know, when you'retrying to look at the lifetime
value of a customer at anymulti-day tour brand, obviously

(39:22):
you're trying to work out thelifetime value of a customer at
any multi-day tour brand.
Obviously you're trying to workout the average transaction
value.
So trying to figure out what isthe basket size for each actual
transaction and then what isyour cost per acquisition to try
and bring those people into thebusiness, whether it's from B2B
or B2C.
B2b, obviously you havecommissions.
In B2C, you've got the fullcost of marketing and trying to
bring that customer in direct.
So most companies are trying tofigure out how do they add that
into their pricing and one ofthe things I'm talking with the

(39:45):
Tourpreneur team on season fiveabout is exactly how tour
operators can grow to becomelarger full-scale tour operators
and there's so much intricacyto pricing foreign exchange,
hedging currencies, interest asyou get more complex pricing
strategies, but also costing.

(40:06):
I mean, as you scale, obviouslyyou can reduce your costs by
virtue of being able to have thebuying power, and so there is a
reason why the big get biggerand buy the smaller companies.
And so, but yeah, I guess whatI'd love to hear from you is
that when I'm doing some of thismodeling and trying to figure

(40:26):
out the value of certainbusinesses and investing and um,
I'm almost always looking atthe average transaction value
and then the likelihood ofrepeat rates, um, which I'm
assuming um is something youwould look at as well to try and
help your partners, try andgenerate.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
It's about 2.3.
Yeah, 2.3 is the average numberof guests on a booking.
That's what we found.
Um oh no.
When I say that, I mean averagereturn guests.
So they will that's the averagelifetime value.
So they do about 2.3 on averagetrips where they'll be
reoccurring, like they'll comeback as as loyalty.
So I don't know why someonehasn't done it yet, but we don't

(41:03):
see a loyalty program in oursort of space.
Every other part hotels, youknow, flights all have loyalty
programs and you do get a lot ofloyalty from these passengers
on these trips and you do get alot of referrals, like if
someone goes on a trip, has anamazing time, they're like you
have to go on this trip, youknow, or with this company,
because they're the best at it,even if they haven't experienced

(41:25):
any others.
That's your spokesperson there.
So it's something that shouldbe um capitalized on, I think,
from a lot of the operators.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, for sure, and I really appreciate you sharing
that because that is ameaningful stat, especially from
someone like you that has thevantage of looking across
multiple brands.
I guess the other one, just tocome back to what's the average
uh people within a booking.
Is it something between one andtwo Like?
Do you kind of use a 1.5?
Is that kind of a formula for?

Speaker 1 (41:57):
for us.
Yeah, it's been around like, ifyou want to get really specific
, it's been around that 1.7.
Um, but generally speaking, um,you would, you would, if you
want to average it out, go 1.5.
Um, a lot, of, a lot of people,either couples or friends,
would go together, um and uh,that is um brought down by a lot
of, uh, solo travelers.

(42:17):
So that's where you get thataverage of that 1.5 or 1.7 that
we're seeing.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Very cool.
The other thing I want to askyou just given you always have
so much energy and you areclearly optimistic and you're
still a young guy and you've gotlots of potential to grow this
business over the long term Iwould love to know what excites
you most.
What is it that's getting youout of the bed in the morning to
grow this business over thelong term?
I would love to know whatexcites you most Like.
What is it that's getting youout of the bed in the morning to

(42:42):
grow this business, build outthe team, expand the number of
partners?
What really excites you aboutthis industry, this category?

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, look, I suppose you can go internal here.
What excites me is like we havea very passionate team, so that
always gets you out of bedbecause you've got fellow
colleagues that are highlyexperienced and can see we're on
the same sort of mission here.
And goal um for the effectsthat we have on um operators, um
and their business is just likejust the change in that

(43:11):
industry, like with people umbringing their businesses online
.
Uh, we've got some startupsthat have just started new
concepts.
We've got people that have toreset and restart over again and
we can actually help them withthat.
So that's very rewarding to seethose sort of success stories.
Where we want to be, we've gotlike some really exciting ideas

(43:32):
as to where we want to take theindustry, but we want to be the
industry standard, Like we wantto be that sort of industry name
.
So when people go, what shouldwe, what system should we do,
Well, it should be us, and youknow a couple of others that are
the name that pops into theirhead and obviously we'd prefer
it if it was just ours.
But we've got to be realisticand that's something that we

(43:52):
could actually start, you know,helping them with training and
having sort of an academy thatwill help upskill these
operators without having them tonot only invest in new
technology but invest in peoplethat can use the technology
efficiently and effectively.
We see a huge area of.

(44:13):
I think there is difficultieswith companies growing their
business with the capital cashflow, so there might be other
areas that we can provide helpwith that allows them to scale
at pace and with a structure ofdangers which I'm sure most
operators have felt when they'veleft off a zero of one of the

(44:43):
spreadsheets or forgot to updateone spreadsheet and not the
other.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Yeah, and one other thing I want to ask you.
This is on behalf of ourlisteners, because I do hear a
lot of great feedback from ourlisteners.
They post comments and Iactually get emails or text
messages.
I think it's really wonderfulthat I do so.
Please continue that for allthe listeners out there that
decide to reach out to me afterthey've listened to a
particularly interesting episode.

(45:06):
They'll reach out to me andI've shown friends.
I'm just like hey, you get tointeract with the host.
How cool is that?
You just you know there's alive chat functionality after
you've listened to an episodeand people are listening to them
out of sync, right?
So I get a random text messageor a random email to be like oh,
I was just listening to RobRansom from bookingcom and his
talk about AI and like what doyou think about?
And I love that.
So the question I wanted to askyou was that, for those young

(45:29):
entrepreneurs out there or forthose people who are entering
the travel industry, given yoursuccess and your track record,
what would be one piece ofadvice that you would love to
give to your younger self or tosomeone else listening to this
show that is going to likely acton that advice.
So what recommendation wouldyou have for them to either get
into this industry or to build asuccessful career or a

(45:52):
successful business?

Speaker 1 (45:54):
I definitely think we need a huge influx of
entrepreneurial innovators intoour industry.
We welcome it.
I think it will have a hugeimpact on the business and I
would highly encourage a lot ofthe operators to be hiring in
different generations of peoplewith new ideas and actually

(46:15):
following those ideas.
The most dangerous statementyou can make is that we're doing
it this way because that's theway we've always done it.
If you're saying that there issomething that you should be
changing, it's a very dangerousstatement to be made because
that's if we could list offmultiple companies inside our
industry and outside theindustry that thought the same
until it came to a crashing end.

(46:37):
So you've got to look at,you've got to be willing to
change, and so having peoplethat are looking at starting up
their own business, I'd highlyencourage it.
They have to.
As soon as someone says that'snot the way we do it or we don't
think that's impossible to do,that should be a note to go.

(46:57):
This is a gap in the industryand this is what we're changing.
I think there's a lot ofcompanies that are all trying to
solve a similar problem andthat you should look at what
your personal pain points are intravel or in tourism, whether
that's in the operational space,whether that's on the customer
space, and that is, if it's apersonal problem that you see in

(47:21):
an industry that you care about, then it makes it a lot easier
to find that solution and a loteasier to keep pursuing, because
it's resilience.
You know, that's sort of themain part of it, that if it was
easy, everyone would do it.
And I know I'm throwing out alot of cliche comments here, but
it just rings true and thoseare the three main ones that
it's just like, if you keepreminding yourself, if it was

(47:43):
easy, everyone would do it.
And that's why you should bestruggling and and and really
battling it out, because it willbe a struggle in a battle, um,
and that's all.
I would investigate with it, tobe honest, because sometimes if
you knew all of the, thehardships that are coming, it
could act as a deterrent.
So you're better off going in abit naive and working it out as
you go.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Yeah, one other thing I would just pay you a
compliment on, given that youhave a successful business, but
you obviously clearly take careof yourself as well, and I think
that's actually an importantpoint to highlight to our
listeners.
I know you work out like, you'revery active, so you, when I saw
you in a world travel, I'm likeI think Murray's got I was
going to got new muscles he'slike, uh, like, so you're.

(48:26):
You're not only wearing thesalmon shirt, but like it's just
like you know, um and so to Toenhance the effect.
But I'm assuming you put acertain amount of time and
effort into like physical andmental health, given that, like,
you radiate like positiveenergy and I think that that is,

(48:50):
and you're obviously workingharder than ever.
You're like, but some people,you see they're just burning out
and clearly there's somethingthat you're doing differently.
Some people, you see they'rejust burning out and clearly
there's something that you'redoing differently, so, uh, so
anything else you'd add to thatjust in terms of actually taking
care of yourself, um, mentallyand physically, on that journey,
because exactly what youhighlighted, it takes a lot
longer.
You need to be resilient andpart of that is actually taking

(49:11):
care of yourself.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah and um, don't get me wrong, there's been times
where I haven't taken care ofmyself and it's been a really
dark spot.
You know like it's been reallyhard times through it.
So it's not all uh roses, butlike when you can, um, it's
great.
It's very hard on the road tostay fit and whatnot.
I find sports has helped me alot.
Like I play quite a bit oftennis and, um, although

(49:35):
depending on my day, it reflectshow I reflects how I play
tennis, which can be not sogreat for tennis, but at least
afterwards, if I run aroundafter a yellow ball for an hour
or two, that sort of takes yourmind off things and can reset
you a bit.
So you need to find things thatcan take your mind off those.

(49:55):
The day-to-day, so, theday-to-day operations, the
day-to-day worries with it.
So they need to find somethingthat's there, but it doesn't
have to be to an extreme.
It doesn't mean you have toevery day be doing something
absolutely extreme becauseyou've read in a book that
that's what works.
It's more what works for youpersonally.
But it has to be a bit of abalance.

(50:16):
Sometimes you've just got to tostop and let the body have a
rest and other times you justgot to keep going.
So there's no right or wrongway of doing things.
But yeah, that's my outlet andI might look like a crazy person
on a tennis court, but I feel alot better afterwards.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Good for you and that's incredibly important.
That's why I wanted just tocall that out, because when I
did a lot better afterwards,good for you and that's
incredibly important.
That's why I wanted just tocall that out, because I did a
podcast in our second seasonwith Sharaf from Dharma and it's
one of the things hehighlighted, which is some of
the mental health challenges ofstartup entrepreneurs.
And so, as we're in 2025 andjust kind of guess that whole
self trying to make sure that wedo address that, because
clearly it's something you'remindful of, so I thought at

(51:03):
least just call that out.
But, murray, I want to makesure that all of our listeners
can find a way to connect withyou.
After this, learn more aboutTour Amigo.
Obviously, I'm thrilled thatour relationship continues.
I think obviously very highlyof you and the company that
you've built.
I'm excited for your future andpotential.
I look forward to seeing youthroughout the year at many
events, but tell everyone alittle bit more about how they
can connect with you or how theycan find out more about Tour
Amigo.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
We're actually just launching anew website, so it's
touramigocom that you can go toand you'll find all the tour
stuff, all the cruise stuff, allthat's listed on there and also
a lot of the information thatwe've been discussing through
today.
Everyone's free.
Feel free to reach out to me aswell.
So it's just my full name,murray decker, with an a in

(51:44):
there m-u-r-r-a-y-d-e-c-k-e-r attouramigocom.
So if they do want to reach out, then then they can do that as
well and we can connect up tosome of our team, depending on
where they're based.
And if anyone's going to USTA,we'll probably see you there.
Look out for the aggressivesalmon shirt.
But one thing I just actuallywanted to highlight, dan I don't

(52:07):
know if we sent it throughbeforehand a trend and where we
think it's going to be veryinteresting going forwards, is
that there is a lot of massiveonline travel agencies out there
that cover a huge amount ofcontent.

(52:28):
Even the GDSs, like Sabre andAmadeus, cover a huge amount of
content.
But if you go to a regional spotin, say, one of these countries
or Italy or something like that, a lot of those suppliers and
vendors are missing.
So we're actually in severalchats and ones that we'll be
able to announce in the nearfuture with DMOs or destination

(52:51):
management or marketingorganizations whichever you're
in the world, you call them buttourism boards, essentially,
where we're going to introduce anew concept and maybe it's been
done before but microdestination platforms, so we're
calling it MDP, but that iswhere a local either OTA or

(53:13):
tourism board or DMO canactually we can give them the
infrastructure to load up all oftheir very local and off the
beaten path experiences andtours and multi-day tours, even
if it's river cruising as well,and we've just found that we've
been approached by severaltourism boards.
To put this together, you couldcall it a marketplace, but I

(53:33):
think from their perspective,the end result is having a
destinational platform thatreally specifically focuses on
their local products andservices and experiences, which
I think will be the future.
I reckon over the next two orthree years we're going to get a
lot more of those platformsthat are specifically focused on

(53:54):
their particular region or area.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
That's fascinating.
I'm glad you called that outbecause that's a good item to
leave everyone in and obviously,following everything that's
happening with you at Tour Amigo, people can see all those
developments, but it's a reallyexciting time to be in this
space.
I've been so looking forward tohaving this conversation with
you.
We finally made it happen.
We're definitely going to haveyou back on the show and be a

(54:19):
part of some of the interestingpanels that we're going to have.
So thank you so much for makingthe time for this, murray.
I wish you and the team everysuccess in 25 and beyond and I
look forward to keeping in touch.
But take care of yourself outthere on your travels.
Keep fighting the good fightand I look forward to seeing
your continued success.
Thank you, thanks very much, dan.
Thanks so much for joining uson the latest episode of Travel
Trends.
I hope you enjoyed theconversation today with Murray

(54:41):
Decker, the founder and CEO ofTour Amigo.
For more information, check outtouramigocom and also find
Murray Decker on LinkedIn.
And if you've been intrigued bythis episode about spotlights,
I encourage you to check outtraveltrendspodcastcom slash
spotlights for fascinatingconversations with executives,
company spotlights, events andmore.

(55:01):
Our season six starts inSeptember, and we will be
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Thanks again for joining ustoday and until next time, safe
travels.