Examples Of Tourism Business Ideas To Start Now And Make Money

The tourism industry is becoming saturated as there are more and more opportunities available in the industry. It is one of the businesses that catch the fancy of investors due to the kind of returns it garners. Today, there are many tourism business ideas that can help entrepreneurs create multiple streams of revenue.

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In this article, we will look at twelve profitable business ideas in the tourism industry you can start now and make profit.

Tourism Business Ideas To Start

1. Lodging

Many travelers prefer to stay in lodging houses instead of hotels. Unlike a hotel, lodging is cheaper and the experience is homier. It is best that you study and learn about the business before investing your hard-earned money into it. If you own a property, you can convert it to a lodge.

Another alternative is to lease a property and convert it into a lodge. When getting a leased property, ensure you read the contract carefully and are satisfied with the arrangement before appending your signature.

Additionally, the lodging business is location-driven, so target a location where tourists and travelers come and go. Some motorists prefer to stay at lodges overnight rather than driving all night to avoid dangers and accidents.

To start a lodging business, get the necessary permits and licenses to make your business legal. This will save you from facing future challenges with the government. Importantly, design your lodge to attract prospective clients and be creative with naming your lodge. You might also need to set up a mini restaurant that’ll cater for the feeding need of your guests.

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2. Private Tour Guide Company

Are you a lover of culture and history? Do you love helping people get new exciting experience? If so, a tour guide business may be your best bet. Basically, a tour guide knows interesting facts and history of a location and passes on the information in an entertaining way to a group of visitors. He/she takes the visitors around a particular location and narrates the history and culture surrounding the location.

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Here are steps to take to run a successful tour guide business:

1. Research Locations

Not all location is good for this kind of business. You have to survey locations with steady flow of tourists, interesting cultures and a decent climate. Ask yourself this questions before choosing a location: will people love to visit this location? Will people love to learn about the history of this location? Does this location have exciting natural places that will interest my clients? A mistake you should not make as a tour guide is to take people to places they don’t find exciting. Also, you can research as many locations as possible so you can give your guests varieties to choose from.

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2. Practice

One way to practice this business is to take your friends on tour and ask them to judge your expertise. For a start, you can write down what you want to say and read it out until you master the art. Don’t worry about making mistakes, it’s part of the practice.

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3. Promote Your Business

The best places to advertise your tour guide business are at airports, restaurants, and bus stations. In addition, your location will determine the best places to advertise your business. You can also leverage online communities when searching for clients.

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4. Schedule Your Tours

You need to determine the number of tours you can handle in a week and schedule your tours appropriately. Always plan your tours ahead by writing down where you need to be every day and at what time. There are different platforms that help you plan your schedule appropriately. You may want to consider one of them.

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3. Luggage Delivery Service

Luggage delivery service is also one of the profitable tourism business ideas you can start. The idea behind the delivery services is to make traveling as headache-free as possible. Luggage delivery service involves helping travelers handle their bags so they won’t have to struggle with them on their flight, or overhead bins. They ensure their luggage waits for them at their final destination when they arrive.

Before starting this business, look up the competitions involved so you know how best to penetrate the market. You also need to come up with extensive planning as to what you can do differently to attract prospective clients. One major factor that can contribute to your success in this business is quality and prompt delivery of baggage. This will help you build goodwill and trust in the mind of customers.

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4. Event Organiser

Do you know how to organise events in a professional and exciting way? If so, you can help throw welcoming parties and private events to reunite travelers with their friends and families. This tourism business idea is both financially rewarding and exciting. Becoming a professional event organiser requires, among other things, a good amount of experience and sometimes, formal training. To be the go-to person, come up with creative event ideas that your customers cannot resist.

One satisfied customer can refer you to their circle of influence as well. The profit you can make in this business is largely dependent on the type of event required by your customers. The interesting part of this business is that you can learn it as fast as possible and get started. First, research people already running this type of business to learn the nitty-gritty of the business. You can connect with potential customers via social media and by sharing your flyers at airports.

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5. Car Rental Services

Car Rental Services also made it to our list of tourism business ideas to invest in. Tourists want to visit as many places as possible when they visit a new location and they’ll need a car to convey them to these places. Most times, people may be willing to rent expensive cars they wouldn’t otherwise own. So, that is an opportunity for your business to capitalise on. If you have a car or fleets of cars at your disposal, you are good to start. And, if you don’t have your personal car just yet, you can consider purchasing or leasing one or two luxury cars for a start.

Note that the car rental business can be competitive, so you need to figure out what people want and make it accessible to them. Aside from renting out your car in a tourist town, car rental businesses near airports tend to do well. Ensure the cars have required licenses and permits to operate without restrictions. Don’t also forget to purchase a comprehensive insurance policy for your fleet.

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6. Travels And Tourism Related TV Program

Here is also one of the profitable tourism business ideas you could begin and start making money from. Anyone looking to travel to a new location will appreciate having first-hand knowledge of the location before visiting. So, you can learn about the different locations people often visit and share information about it in an entertaining way on a TV programme.

That way, you can approach travel and tourism companies to run adverts on your program. Starting this type of programme will also require that you visit these locations yourself, have some videos and photographs to share during your programme because people connect more with videos and photographs more than mere words. Your source of income in this business would come majorly from advert placements.

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7. Tourism Publications

Have you come across tourism publications before? Sample of such magazine is Nigeria Travels Magazine and African Tourist Magazine. If this interests you, there’s no ceiling to the profit involved in the business if you understand how it works. Basically, tourist publications contains tourism stories, tourist guides and locations, list of hotels, business opportunities in the industry, new places people can visit, tourism news and the likes.

This business also requires printing knowledge, so among other requirements, you need to invest in essential printing knowledge. You can start weekly or monthly tourism publications and reach out to companies to advertise their business in it. Part of the information to be contained in your publication is the prices of tickets for the different airline companies as this is an important information tourists would love to have.

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8. Bodyguard Business

Another profitable tourism business idea an intending entrepreneur should consider is bodyguard business. The threat of global terrorism and kidnappings has caused an increase in the demand for bodyguards. You need to be experienced to run this type of business and also be in connection with a network of bodyguards. Some celebrity and top politicians visiting tourist centres will need bodyguards for safety purposes.

Additionally, note that individuals seeking to start a bodyguard business without prior security experience will find it extremely difficult to find clients. There’s also an age limit to this business. Usually, you need to be above eighteen years to be in this business. More than that, you will need to get trained in a security company before you can venture into this business and also get familiar with the basic requirements you need to meet up with.

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9. Airline Company

This is also one of the profitable tourism business ideas that have enriched many. This is actually a big-time business that requires huge capital to begin. If you have ample experience in aviation and you have the capital to invest in it, then you can consider an airline company.

If you don’t have the required capital, you can consider getting bank loans or partnering with investors looking to put funds in a lucrative venture. You also need to critically study those already in the industry because there are licenses and requirements you have to meet up with.

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10. Travel Blog

Travel blog is a profitable tourism business idea to also consider especially if you are into the sale of tourism products. It can increase your sales in your existing target market, as well as create new opportunities for your business. To start a travel blog, you need to learn how to write for the web, and to optimise your blog for visibility.

In order to have different feels on your blog, you can employ other bloggers to write for you. The different types of people you can invite to contribute to your blog include professional travel bloggers, professional photographers, or videographers, and writing experts.

Sharing your contents is very important to the discovery of your blog. You can share your content via social media channels, sending newsletters to visitors, encouraging other people to share your blog posts.

Also, approach relevant travel magazines/e-magazines to see if they are willing to publish your content. Furthermore, include buttons on your blog that makes it easy for visitors to share your blog posts on their social media. Once your blog gains visibility, you can reach out to travel agencies and tourism companies to run an advert through your blog. Note that blogging requires a certain level of hard work and consistency before you can benefit from it.

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11. Travel Agency Business

If none of the tourism business ideas listed above interests you, the travel agency is a simple business model that doesn’t require so much to start. Several people travel from one place to another. Nigerians especially can be found in almost every part of the world and many Nigerians are looking for ways to travel outside the country. Therefore, there is huge traffic available for you to tap into. Many people travel for several purposes such as education, business, fun, sightseeing, etc.

Basically, Travel agencies assist travelers in caring for their travel needs at a cost. Some of these travel needs include but not limited to booking of flights and buying flight tickets, acquiring visas, booking, and paying for hotel accommodation.

To start out as a freelance travel agent, you do not need so much capital or infrastructure. Actually, you can run the business from the comfort of your home. With your internet-enabled computer system and a printer, you are good to go. You can start with as low as N100,000.

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12. Online Hotel Booking Site

If you are a web or software developer, here is a tourism business idea for you. If you cannot build one, you will have to hire a professional travel portal development company. Also, hotel booking websites require secure payment gateway that can accept payments in any foreign currency.

Therefore, get a good payment gateway that will accompany the site. Hotels.ng is a good example of an online hotel booking site and you can see how successful it has become. Truly, people lodge in hotels everyday and will need an easy means to book for their rooms. So, owning a site that caters to that is a good business model.

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If you’ve selected any of the tourism business ideas listed above, here are other necessary steps that will facilitate the success of your idea.

Step One – Register Your Business With CAC

Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is the recognised body responsible for business registration in Nigeria. Without mincing words, customers see registered businesses as credible and trustworthy. Therefore, you’ll stand a better chance of gaining the trust of your customers if your business is registered. Besides, you cannot open a corporate account without your business registration certificate. The good news is that business registration in Nigeria is simple and seamless if you know how to go about it.

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First, you need to run a name availability search to ensure that your preferred name has not been registered by someone else. If the name is available on CAC’s portal, the next thing to do is to reserve the name. Afterward, you can begin the registration process properly.

Please note that many businesses get stuck when registering themselves. So, it’s advisable to hire the service of an expert to help you with your registration. One of the experienced firms you can trust in Nigeria is ReDahlia.

ReDahlia is located at 43B, Emina Crescent Off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos. Actually, you don’t need to reside in Lagos to use ReDahlia’s service. You can send your information via email to them, make payment and your certificate will be delivered to your preferred location once it’s ready. Yes, it is that simple.

See Also: Benefits Of Registering Your Business With Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)

Step Two – Draft A Business Plan

This step cannot be overemphasized. You need to plan your business for success. Remember, he who fails to plan, plan to fail. Contrary to the belief of many startups, a business plan is not difficult to draft. All you need is to ensure that both long and short term business goals are penned down. You can begin writing them one day at a time.

Basically, here are the information that should be found in your business plan:

1. An overview of your tourism business
2. Executive summary
3. General company description
4. SWOT analysis
5. Market research
6. Your strategy
7. The team
8. A marketing plan
9. An operational plan
10. Financial projection
11. An appendix

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Step Three – Acquire Funding

Some of the tourism business ideas here require capital to start and this is where many aspiring entrepreneurs get stuck. But you need not be because there are several opportunities for startups to get funding more than ever before. But, to plug into them, step two is a necessity and you must also be able to pitch your idea creatively to investors. The first place to look at when sourcing for business funds is with family and friends. Thereafter, you can consider a loan from commercial banks.

You may not be comfortable taking bank loans to start a business you are not sure of its success and that’s quite understandable. If you belong to this school of thought, the former options will work best for you. It is advisable to start small with the fund available to you and when you are familiar with the business, you can then expand using a loan.

See Also: 11 Ways To Get Funding And Grow Your Business In Nigeria

Step Four – Promote Your Tourism Business

Really, what is a business without strategic marketing? A good marketing strategy will help you make sales. Selling is the lifeblood of every business. Without it, a business is set up for a rude shock. If you carry out step two religiously, you’ll only need to put what you’ve penned down into action. There’s a need for thorough competition research so you can penetrate the market strategically.

Other ways to market your tourism business ideas are through word of mouth, referral, strategic partnerships, and taking advantage of social media platforms.

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In conclusion, most of the tourism business ideas require little capital to set up. With adequate knowledge of the businesses listed, you can rake in millions from the opportunities in the industry.

Do you have additional ideas that can help an aspiring tourism business owner become successful? Feel free to drop your insights in the comment section. Also, do not hesitate to share this content with your audience.

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