The Traveling Professor offers between 10 and 15 tours each year through postings on The Traveling Professor website.  Anyone can sign up for one of these small group tours.  However, there are even more tours being run for private groups for the purpose of fundraising, professional development, and building donor loyalty.

These tours are always custom designed.  For instance, last year we ran a customized Normandy Invasion Beaches tour for the National D-Day Memorial.   We recently ran a tour to Iceland for a group of lawyers who wanted to study the Icelandic legal system.  This particular program had a 2-day legal program component as well as recreational tours of Iceland. We have also run tours to Paris for Jamie Cat Callan, author of the best-selling Parisian Charm School.  The Traveling Professor has also run tours for travel clubs and civic organizations,  and charitable organizations, all customized to their tastes.

The Traveling Professor helps an organization:

• Develop an idea or theme for a tour.
• Put together the hotels, transportation, guides, and tour program
• Promotes the tour.
• Provides ticketing billing and other accounting services.
• Escorts the tour.

Another important factor is that The Traveling Professor provides insurance coverage for unexpected situations that may (thankfully this has not happened) come up on a tour.  I cannot emphasize the importance of having tour operator insurance.  Normally, a group sponsoring a special tour would not be able to get this insurance on their own.

For example, when we ran our small group tour to the Normandy Invasion Beaches for the National D-Day Memorial, we met with the staff of the organization and put a program together for them, we went out an obtained the hotels, guides, tickets, transportation services, etc. needed for the tour.  We promoted the tour and provided the billing services.  The National D Day Memorial used part of the proceeds from the tour for their purposes.

Here are the benefits of running a small group tour for an organization:

• It's a great way to raise a substantial amount of funds.  As part of the planning process, the organization decides how much of the proceeds from the tour will go towards their organization.
• It really is quite simple and effective and an easy way for donors to give.
• Fundraising tours are extremely effective in getting people involved in an organization.   Long after the tour is over, travelers stay closely connected to that group and continue to donate year after year.
• The details of running the tour falls on The Traveling Professor.  There are the hours and hours of details of organizing ad running a trip, there are the many questions asked by travelers, and the responsibility of collecting money is all handled by The Traveling Professor.

We're happy to answer your questions about running a small group private tour for your organization.  Email The Professor at info@travelingprofessor.com.