Before this course, and what makes an experience
A bed is a thing. A good day out is a story. Guests may forget the bed, but they remember the day they cooked with a local family or watched the sunrise from a hill with a friendly guide.
- Before this course: Tourism & Homestay Business (course 2.26) and Hosting Operations: bookings, guests and reviews (course 2.26.2). You should already know the four types of tourism business, the four permission layers (home, city, country, insurer), occupancy, average daily rate, break-even nights, the guest timeline and review habits. This course builds on them and does not repeat them.
- A tourism experience is something guests do, not only a place they sleep: a walk, a class, a tasting, a farm visit, a boat trip, a craft workshop.
- A good experience has five parts:
- Promise: one sentence on what the guest will do and feel.
- Guest: who it is for (families, solo travellers, older visitors, small groups).
- Place and story: what is special and true about your area.
- Time and size: how long it lasts and how many guests you can look after well.
- Safety and rules: what could go wrong and what you must follow (Lesson 3).
- Use real local culture, not a copy of somewhere else. Ask people from the community to help tell their own story and agree what is fine to share.
- Start with one experience. Test it with friends and a few real guests before you add more.
- Write down three things about your area that visitors find interesting (food, nature, history, craft, festival).
- Pick the one you know best and can show safely.
- Write the promise in one sentence: "Guests will ___ with ___ and go home with ___."
- Write who it is for and who it is not for.
- Choose a length (for example 2 hours) and a maximum group size.
- Ask one local person (a neighbour, elder or maker) what they would like guests to know, and what they would prefer to keep private.
- Check: a stranger reads your sentence and can tell you what they would do on the day.
Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.
Read the video script
[Host] "A bed is a thing. A good day out is a story. Guests remember the story."
[Text on screen: Promise, Guest, Story, Time and size, Safety] "Design every experience with five parts: promise, guest, story, time and size, and safety."
[Screen: one-sentence promise] "Write the promise in one sentence: guests will do this, with this person, and go home with this."
[Host] "Start with one experience. Test it before you add more."
Write your promise sentence, your guest, your length and your maximum group size for one experience. Show it to two people and ask them what they think they would do.
ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude
Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.
For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.
I'm learning "Tourism Experiences: tours, partnerships and marketing" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Before this course, and what makes an experience". What the lesson teaches: - Before this course: Tourism & Homestay Business (course 2.26) and Hosting Operations: bookings, guests and reviews (course 2.26.2). You should already know the four types of tourism business, the four permission layers (home, city, country, insurer), occupancy, average daily rate, break-even nights, the guest timeline and review habits. This course builds on them and does not repeat them. - A tourism experience is something guests do, not only a place they sleep: a walk, a class, a tasting, a farm visit, a boat trip, a craft workshop. - A good experience has five parts: - Promise: one sentence on what the guest will do and feel. - Guest: who it is for (families, solo travellers, older visitors, small groups). - Place and story: what is special and true about your area. - Time and size: how long it lasts and how many guests you can look after well. The exercise I'm working on: Write your promise sentence, your guest, your length and your maximum group size for one experience. Show it to two people and ask them what they think they would do. I'm stuck. Please: 1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example. 2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step. 3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Before this course, and what makes an experience" from the course "Tourism Experiences: tours, partnerships and marketing". Here's what the lesson says: A bed is a thing. A good day out is a story. Guests may forget the bed, but they remember the day they cooked with a local family or watched the sunrise from a hill with a friendly guide. The activity: Write your promise sentence, your guest, your length and your maximum group size for one experience. Show it to two people and ask them what they think they would do. Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words. Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Sources
- Course 2.26 and course 2.26.2 in this academy (earlier levels of this track).
Planning the flow of a tour
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Safety, risk and insurance for tours
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Local partnerships and fair dealing
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Pricing, costs and break-even for an experience
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Marketing to visitors, honestly
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Improving, caring for the place, and your launch plan
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Final project
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Quiz
What are the five parts of a well-designed experience?
Promise, guest, place and story, time and size, and safety and rules.
Why add a margin of time to a tour plan?
Tours almost always run late.
What are the four steps of a simple risk assessment?
Find hazards, rate how likely and how serious they are, decide what to do, and write who does it.
Where should you check that your insurance covers guests on a tour?
Ask your insurer in writing, because ordinary home insurance may not cover it.
Why write a short agreement with a local partner?
It says who does what, the price, cancellation steps and who handles complaints, which protects both sides.
How do you calculate break-even guests?
Fixed costs ÷ (price per guest − variable cost per guest).
In the practice example, why do five guests break even?
1,800 ÷ (650 − 250) = 4.5, so five guests are needed.
Why should a listing show the full price?
Hidden fees can be misleading, and guests need to know what they will pay.
What should you do if someone gives you money or free products to promote their place?
Disclose it clearly using plain words.
What is one way to care for the place where your tours run?
Keep groups small, follow site rules, take rubbish away, buy locally and ask before photographing people.
Final exam
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.
Certificate
This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.