Travel writer and television host Rick Steves discusses how his teenage budget backpacking trip across Europe shaped his worldview.
Insight
Rick Steves drove paid tour bookings by giving away DIY tour handbooks
“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…”
Insight
Rick Steves won by speaking only English and not being a scholar
“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.”
Insight
Rick Steves: Enter the travel business via minibus tours in niche geographies
“When people want to get into the travel business and make some money, I say, you know, I think the best thing is just to have a forte. Just, you know, you are you know, you are Mr. Scandinavia, or you are Mr. Baja, or Miss Baja, California. And just do that sp…”
Insight
Rick Steves: Giving away complete tour itineraries in books boosted tour sales
“And some people said, oh, you're giving away all your secrets. No, it was a great thing because it turned people onto the tours, and it opened up my teaching to people that wouldn't take the tours anyway.”
Insight
Rick Steves: Become indispensable by being a cash cow for your partners
“You know, one thing I've had as a business sort of value is be other people's cash cow. Everybody is struggling. Everybody is desperate to be viable from a business point of view, and if all you are is your own cash cow, nobody's going to want to talk to you, …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rick Steves' travel show generated nearly 20% of all PBS pledge revenue
“To this day, I mean, I just was talking to the people at Public Television a week or two ago, and they said nearly 20% of all the money that they raised in Pledge this last quarter was from my show, for the whole system.”