We recently connected with Pablo Valqui and have shared our conversation below.
Pablo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
As a fine food buyer I was very close to a movement that started in Texas probably a little earlier than my arrival in 2005, but grew very quickly after that, the foodie movement. I noticed the customers interest shifting from getting the specialty products in Texas, to actually going out to the places where these products were made. I had worked with travel groups, study abroad students and journalists, before, so I basically added foodies+destinations+travel and got the idea of organizing tours, first to my home country of Peru, and then to other destinations, where I could show off the best food and drinks of the specific country.
My ulterior motive, however, is best expressed through a German saying: “Liebe geht durch den Magen” (Love flows through the stomach). But the love I want to spread is the love for other cultures and people through getting to know what they eat and drink.
Pablo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a trilingual, soon to be American/Texan, of Peruvian and German heritage, political scientist by trade, but have worked in the food and wine industry for the last 18 years of my life. My tour company organizes small group, 8-10 travelers only, food and wine tours to several destinations in the world. During the tours the traveler is fully taken care of, they only need to show up daily to the day start, ideally hungry and thirsty for food, wine and knowledge.
During the tours we will visit great wineries, breweries, and eat at the best places available, but they can be mom and pop, hole in the wall or gourmet restaurants. We usually stay in the city centers, so we can see a lot when walking around the city.
Our typical traveler wants to see the world, beyond the monuments and typical attractions, and wants to do so in a small, relaxed group of travelers, instead of being herded around in groups of 50 or more. They also normally have an affinity to wine, beer and good food and would normally consider themselves as food-adventurous.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
The single most successful sale of a tour was a chef tour to Germany. We tied in a lunch with an information meeting about our tour, chef was the partner and would cook during the time in Germany. Within the first half an hour of a meeting in the first Q&A break, the first two people raised their check book and said they were taking two spots. The next two people reacted to that with the request to have the next seats. By the end of the information session we had sold six seats. Unfortunately the last four seats to make it ten took almost a year to sell as this was right before Covid and we had to postpone the trip twice. When we found the first available date post-covid we were able to get the other four seats sold, but at the initial information meeting I was really excited about the prospects of the tour business and then Covid dampened that excitement. I never had a similar sales experience. But also hope I will never have to live through another Covid experience.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
That what was promised to the travelers is fulfilled or exceeded. The fact that several people choose to travel time and time again with our company.
The transparency of how I conduct business. There are no hidden fees and no surprises. You get what you pay for.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gourmettours.biz
- Instagram: gourmettoursww
- Facebook: gourmettoursww