Do One Thing Really Well: How Andrew Wells Built and Scaled a Tour Business — Twice

How did your journey in tourism begin?

I first got into guiding in 1999 after I’d moved to Queenstown. I’d been living overseas and studied business at university. When I stumbled into tourism, it felt like the perfect combination of something that used my business degree but was also fun and interesting. I started guiding on the Routeburn Track, one of those classic New Zealand experiences. My mates used to joke that it was my first “real“ job! I spent a few seasons guiding, and then moved into operations for the same company. I also had the opportunity to work in the Japanese market because I’d lived in Japan and spoke the language. That mix of guiding, operations, and marketing really opened my eyes to how the business side of tours worked.

You went from guiding to running your first tour business. What made you take the leap?

After a few seasons guiding, I started to get a real feel for what it takes to run a tour business - not just the guiding, but everything behind the scenes too. So when I moved up to Christchurch in the early 2000s, I figured it was time to have a go at doing my own thing. I set up a small guided walking tour business. It was just me, a van, and a couple of guides I’d bring in on contract. I was doing everything: bookings, guiding, marketing. You wear a lot of hats, but you learn fast that way. In the off season, I’d head over to Europe to guide trips. It was a great chance to see the world, but also to see how other operators ran things. I learned a lot just by observing what worked overseas and brought a lot of that thinking back home.

Even early on, I was always into the tech side. Back then, most websites were just digital brochures as online booking wasn’t really a thing yet. But I could see it coming. I started listening to early podcasts (you had to download them onto your iPod in those days!) and thinking about how all these tactics could actually be applied to tours. I was the guy constantly tinkering with the website and trying to figure out how to make it all work better.

I ran that business from 2003 to about 2011. I wound up the business after the Christchurch earthquake (I was actually up on tour the day before that and was due to be on a tour the day after).

You launched another business, New Zealand Trails, a couple of years later. What was the opportunity you saw, and how did you shape it?

After I wound up my first business, I moved to Auckland and spent a couple of years working at a booking technology company. It was a good experience, but I knew deep down I wanted to get back to the front line of tourism. While I was up there, I got chatting with a few industry contacts, and the idea for New Zealand Trails came together. We had a real ‘meeting of minds’ around how we’d promote it and what kind of product we wanted to deliver.

The concept was simple: one tour, done really well.

That was a big lesson for me: don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on one great thing and keep refining it. Ours was a high-end, small group walking tour around the South Island. Mercedes vans, great accommodation, experienced guides in Merino gear. It wasn’t just for show; it reinforced that the experience was premium from start to finish. We launched in 2013.

With my background in online marketing and bookings, we made a call early on to go direct to consumer through digital channels. No trade channels, no wholesalers. We invested in the website, tracked brochure requests as a key metric, and used social media to showcase what was happening out on the road. Everything pointed back to the site. We knew that if we got enough brochure requests, we’d convert a portion into bookings. And we did.

New Zealand Trails grew rapidly - how did you keep the experience consistent as you scaled?

We kept it really focused by design. One trip. That was the whole model. Less is more. And by sticking to that, we were able to pour all our attention into getting it right and making it better every time. We documented everything in the guide itinerary: where to park, which table to ask for, what to say to the supplier. We brought on experienced guides who could step in and deliver without needing their hand held. I remember handing off the itinerary to a new guide once, he looked at the notes and said, “I can run this trip just from what you’ve written here.“ They had the life experience to handle things when plans changed, and they connected well with our guests, who were mostly in their 50s and 60s.

We designed the trip around what we called “magic moments“. These were little highlights we knew people would remember. Like helicopters from Milford Sound and landing in a remote valley where lunch was waiting. You could see the magic moment hit them. Those are the things people talk about when they get home. They also gave us great word of mouth and strong images we could use in our marketing.

You’ve made the leap from guide to business owner - twice. What advice would you give to someone trying to do the same?

The first time, I tried to do everything myself: guiding, admin, marketing, the lot. The second time, I had partners who helped me think differently. We talked seriously about how to scale, and that meant hiring help when we needed it, putting systems in place, and being willing to hand off control and delegate.

Letting go of control wasn’t easy, especially when you know the business inside out. Letting go feels risky. But trying to do it all is a fast track to burnout. During my first business, I remember nights on tour finishing up with the guests, then sitting in a hotel room at 10pm doing paperwork or updating the website. I even did work while on holiday. That ‘hustle’ can work short-term, but it’s not sustainable. You can’t grow a business if you’re in the field all day and in the back office all night.

Surround yourself with people who are better than you at the things you’re not strong in. One of my partners was an accountant, which meant I didn’t have to think about payments or bookkeeping. That let me focus on what I was good at.

These days you’re focused on tourism tech. How did that come about?

After I left New Zealand Trails, I started working more seriously in tech. First with a large established operator, then under my own brand, Tourism Tech Solutions. Now I help operators, usually people without an IT team, get their systems in order. Booking tools, websites, automation, payment gateways, that sort of thing. I like delivering tangible outcomes. Sometimes it’s just fixing a website. Other times it’s a full system change.

I still love nerding out on tech stuff. I’m currently into Linux and open-source tools. I’ve even got a server running at home just for fun. But what really drives me is helping tourism businesses get the tech sorted so they can focus on their customers. I’ve been in tourism since the mid-90s. I see myself as the tour guy who got interested in tech, not the other way around. My clients appreciate that I can speak the language of both tech and tours!

You work with a lot of operators on their systems. What challenges do they keep running into?

Time. Everyone’s flat out. People want to fix things, but there’s never a good time. The off-season is usually the only window and even that fills up quickly. I worked on a major project to change the booking system across nine businesses under one brand … It ended up taking three years to roll out. And the challenge was always the same: how do you change the core of your business when you’re busy serving customers?

With smaller operators, it’s similar. I often hear, “I was meant to do that last year, maybe I’ll get to it this year.” It’s not that they don’t care. It’s just that urgent stuff always gets in the way. It’s like that matrix—the one with the two axes, important and urgent—the Eisenhower Matrix. The tasks that are important but not urgent are the ones that really make a difference in the long run, but are easy to deprioritise. Updating your systems might not feel critical today, but it’ll set you up for a much stronger position down the track.

Implementation is often where things get stuck. How do you help operators get it right?

Start with the problem. What are they trying to fix? Once that’s clear, I help lay out a proper plan: who’s doing what, by when, and how success will be measured. I break it into steps, document everything, and set clear criteria so I know when we’ve hit the mark. I also talk to the team every day during an implementation. Especially in the final stretch. You can’t just drop in a new tool and hope it works. You’ve got to support the team. And you need champions inside the business; people on the frontline who get it and want to make it work. They usually emerge on their own, and once they do, you back them. Leadership matters too. If the owner or GM isn’t on board, the whole thing stalls. So I make sure I stay in touch with both ends: the doers and the decision-makers.

How can people connect with you?

You can find me over at Tourism Tech Solutions, or feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to chat more about systems, tools, or just the nuts and bolts of running great tours.