The founder, Sean Finelli's fascination with travel began in college, when he spent summers working and living with family in Italy. There, he realized that the country he was experiencing wasn’t the Italy others had experienced during their vacations and pre-packaged tours.
So Sean stayed in Italy, giving up a career on Wall Street to become a tour guide in Rome. His connection with the country, captivating storytelling and attention to detail made him a quick success. He soon became one of the leading tour operators in Rome, earning recognition from Forbes Travel Guide, Lonely Planet, and more.
Since then, The Tour Guy has blossomed into a leading provider of walking tours and structured travel experiences in more than 20 European cities, including Rome, Paris, Athens and Florence, Italy.
Their 50+ tour guides cultivate original ways to experience well-traveled cultural destinations and discover hidden gems. The Tour Guy team is dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences for their customers, complemented by top-notch customer service and a personal touch.
After the pandemic-related shutdown of international travel, The Tour Guy needed to convert its walking city tour business to a fully virtual experience, while preserving the comprehensive cultural engagement and conversational that is central to their brand.
To achieve this, The Tour Guy needed a software with ultra-reliable streaming capabilities and powerful engagement features, including chat, polls, offers and the ability for attendees to hop on camera and ask questions. They also needed to deeply customize the experience to the Tour Guy brand.
The company also needed to provide additional work for its out-of-work tour guides, who had been dependent on in-person tours for income. So to maximize revenue and follow-up, The Tour Guy also needed to deeply customize their virtual tour experience to their brand.
The Tour Guy worked with BigMarker to create 3-hour virtual tour experiences that immersed visitors in some of the world’s top cultural destinations like the Vatican, Colosseum, Louvre and Florence, Italy. The Tour Guy enjoyed exclusive access to some of the world’s most coveted cultural destinations, giving viewers unparalleled access to these transformative experiences.
Each session was a licensed guide-led webinar packed with 360-degree video streams, photos, polls and a fully interactive live chat function, along with a live Q&A at the end. Guests could continue their cultural exploration with virtual Italian cooking demos and other extracurricular programming.
“Our virtual tour guide was very knowledgeable and you can tell he loves what he does. He showed us the most beautiful works of art at a time where it is not possible for us to travel and we are thankful for his presentation. I highly recommend purchasing virtual tours through The Tour Guy. I look forward to doing more virtual tours.”
Lynne M., TripAdvisor reviewer
Kapuskasing, Canada
The Tour Guy’s city tours transitioned seamlessly to virtual. Since April 2020, the company has conducted more than 5,000 virtual tours. After airing live, virtual tours have been replayed on a simulive basis, providing wanderlust-busting escapes for even more guests—and creating a constantly refreshing source of interest for their in-person touring business.
Charging 10-15 euros per tour, The Tour Guy also used proceeds from their virtual tours to offset their tour guides’ lost wages.
Beyond helping the company weather a crisis, remote tours have become a permanent additional revenue stream for The Tour Guy. The team plans to operate virtual tours as winter-time “down season” programming even after regular travel resumes.
“When The Tour Guy’s guides are locked down at home, they're unable to earn a living or do what they love most: leading small group tours where they can share their passion and knowledge about the world’s greatest destinations and cultures. BigMarker empowered our guides to be able to continue to earn a living and also to stay passionate.”
Sean Finelli
Founder & CEO, The Tour Guy
We're available to provide pricing and guided tours of our webinar, virtual, hybrid & in-person event solutions.
Request a Demo
