Tours by Locals

ToursByLocals is made up of a group of dedicated professionals based out of Vancouver, Canada, who are committed to changing the relationship between travelers and the local people who deliver travel services.

Company Story:

The spark for ToursByLocals was struck during a trip we (Canadians Paul Melhus and Dave Vincent), made to China in June of 2006.

While we were in Beijing, we were determined to make it to the Great Wall. Time constraints meant we could't adhere to the fixed schedules of the bus tours, and they were all headed to the most touristy section of the wall, which really didn't appeal to our more independent style of traveling.

A local travel agent came up with a solution: a private driver would take us to the wall, wait while we explored, then return us to Beijing Airport in time for our flight. We wouldn't have a guide, but at least we'd get to see the wall! Upon our arrival at Simatai, we were quickly joined by two local women who began giving us an impromptu and surprisingly thorough tour of the Wall's history. Of course this sort of exchange did not come without strings: at the end of their 'tour' the women wanted to sell us souvenirs. An awkward exchange followed and we ended up feeling obligated to buy things we really didn't want.

What if conditions had been different? What if these women had a proper way to connect with travelers and share their expert knowledge in a way that left both parties happier?

What was missing was a reliable way to bring local people with their knowledge and expertise together with travelers who are looking for an authentic cultural experience. Shortly after coming home from that trip, we began to put together a plan for what such a service would look like. We needed to design a platform that would be reliable, trustworthy and simple for both guides and travelers to use.

In November 2008, www.toursbylocals.com was launched out of our offices in Vancouver, BC. Today our network has grown to include 1645 guides working in 134 countries around the world. We remain committed to the goal of connecting travelers with local guides everywhere that people want to go.

Mission:

ToursByLocals provides private tours for travelers through our carefully selected network of local tour guides, each of whom is keen to share their knowledge, experience and expertise.

The travelers we serve want to do unique things, experience the reality of a place and see its culture through the eyes of a local person. They are 'sensibly curious', socially conscious and value seeing their travel spending directly benefit the people who live in the communities they visit.

Our guides are entrepreneurial, passionate people proud of the place they live. Through them, we are able to offer a variety of tours, including unusual tours that reflect differing interests. We're committed to helping our guide partners be successful and have an active program to search out and qualify new tour guides, to train them on our system and business principles and to work with them to develop our tour offerings.

We are the 'merchant of record' for each tour sold and handle marketing, booking and payment processing, customer service and payments

The ToursByLocals website offers many tours that can be purchased 'off the shelf', however each can be customized to fit a traveler's specific needs. We showcase the personality and skill of each guide while providing for consistent elements between tour offerings - pricing is per tour, not per person, payment in advance and other standardized policies. We have a team of 'Customer Experience Specialists' in Vancouver, London and Delhi who are on hand 24/7 to help, in case problems arise.

Our mission is to provide high quality private tours everywhere people travel. We work every day towards that goal.