Rick Steves' Europe

“When we peaked in 2019, I think we were, our gross revenue was a hundred million dollars with a hundred employees.”

“The longest tour is 20 days, and our best-selling tours are 10 or 12 days.”

“I used to genuinely look for places off the beaten path, but I've been sort of, I've morphed into finding unique, authentic places that are accessible to the beaten path. That's what people want.”

“In a normal year, we take 30,000 people and 1200 tours.”

“I put everything I knew about doing the tour in the handbook for the tour into intending to give people the information necessary so they could do the Rick Steves tour without Rick Steves. They could buy the book for five bucks and do it on their own. And some…”

“From 80 on, after I had the guidebook, the tour, the bus tours were funding the idealism of the business”

“But from 80 on, after I had the guidebook, the tour, the bus tours were funding the idealism of the business.”

“I think that's part of my how I was successful. Part of my appeal is I'm not a scholar. You know, I mispronounce the words. I don't know how to, I don't say Paris, you know. I say Paris. I speak only English.”

“No strategy at all. I never really wanted to look in the book and say, oh, now you have a COO. Now you have a CFO. I don't even know what that stuff is until it becomes apparent, oh, we need a guy to do this, and then they go, yeah, that's called a CFO. We're …”

“It's funny, because now, you know, 40 years later, it's evolved where that's way too long for the American market, and the longest tour is 20 days, and our best-selling tours are 10 or 12 days.”

“I've, you know, I've wanted to get to the point where the business could survive without me, and I think we're at the point now, and I'm really happy about that, that we've got a team where the company is viable without me.”

“In a normal year, we take 30,000 people and 1200 tours.”