Many of our customers at Wells Gray Tours are curious as to how we as a company do our planning. By this, I mean how we actually come up with, organize and decide on the tours that will be offered from year to year. You may be surprised at how much impact you as customers have on what tours we offer! Not only do we make sure to offer tours that have been successful in the past, we also take into account your suggestions and new ideas. Let me give you a little insider information on how we do this!
All offices at Wells Gray Tours have an ‘Interested List’ that is kept and maintained throughout the year. These lists hold suggestions for new travel destinations as well as tours people have already enjoyed and know we have offered in the past. People may have heard about these tours through fellow travellers, our tour directors, our e-newsletter or our newspaper ads. They may also have read something or done some research about a fascinating destination in the world and would like to see us go there. If you put your name on our ‘Interested List’, we will always make sure to call you when the tour you are interested in becomes available for sale. These lists get sent to our head office with your wishes and interests and are also used for future tour planning. They get discussed in great detail at our fall staff meeting and spring staff retreat.
Every November, Wells Gray Tours holds an annual staff meeting. This meeting is for all full time office staff and takes place over a full day to discuss the years events and plans for the future. Everyone has the opportunity to submit ideas for travel destinations they think would be interesting to see on future tour schedules and perhaps what may not be as popular as it once was and needs to be reworked or removed.
We also have a spring retreat which is very exciting! This retreat is over a full weekend and is for all staff including our tour directors. It is a chance to meet new faces and reconnect with old ones. Having the ideas, opinions and view points from all facets of the company holds a very interesting and colourful dynamic. The retreat, just like the annual meeting is very intense and packed full of a year’s worth of topics to discuss. All staff are given the opportunity to submit ideas for future tours at the retreat as well. These meetings are broken up by staff activities such as coffee breaks, mini ping pong, team building games and a very fun evening of five pin bowling.
Not only do we try and use new ideas for our upcoming tours, we also rely heavily on the success and interest of previously offered tours. After each tour returns home, our tour directors write a report for all employees to read highlighting the successes and failures for that tour along the way. The comment sheets you as travellers fill out and submit to your tour director at the end of your tour are also read and taken into account when planning new and reworking tours for the following year so make sure to share your likes, concerns, and suggestions!
New Tours To Watch For:
~Kootenays Golf Experience, Sept. 2015
~Jasper Park Lodge, Oct. 2015
~Around the World in 30 Days-Dubai to Singapore Cruise, Jan. 2016
~Antarctica & South America Cruise, Jan. 2016
~Iceland, June 2016
Written by:
Terri Wirtz
Office Manager
Wells Gray Tours, Kelowna
