Portfolio of Mark Hougardy
Trip Report:
Group Leader: Mark Hougardy | Organization: Eugene-based hiking group | Date: in April 2023 | Duration: 1 day | Walking Distance: 3 miles | Participants: 12 | Elevation Gain/Loss: 50 feet | Type: Urban Walking
A little rain did not deter our group from seeing large murals and micro art pieces in downtown Eugene. A special treat was seeing the new colorful mural at the Farmers Market (shown).
Several years ago at a trip leader training, someone asked the question, “At the end of a travel program what happens to the tips intended for housekeeping?
Some quick background: The travel company had been providing tips to the housekeeping staff (at the various hotels utilized on tours) by paying the hotels directly. The expectation was these funds would navigate corporate accounting departments and “trickle down” to the individuals who did the work. The general feedback was these funds were not getting paid out, and if this was being paid out, had not been communicated to staff or observed in paychecks. To ensure that housekeeping was receiving their hard-earned tips, the travel company made the individual trip leaders responsible for this. The company would deposit the tips for housekeeping into the trip leader’s bank account, who then had to pull this out of their bank as cash, and then would pay the housekeeping manager directly at the end of the trip.
Then another question was asked, “How does someone know if the cash even reaches housekeeping?” The answer from the travel company was, “We don’t know. There’s no way to track this once the trip leaders pull it from their account.”
Whoa! This was not just a glaring hole in the travel company’s process, but one that left the trip leader exposed and in a precarious position about their honesty if anyone ever asked, “What happened to the money?” Integrity and being mindful of others’ hard work mean everything in the hospitality/travel business. Having that questioned or even an ounce of suspicion is a death knell to one’s career.
After that day, I documented everything related to tips intended for others, and I do this with a simple process. I’ve listed this as A, B, and C:
A) At the end of the trip, when I am ready to pay out tips for housekeeping, I lay out the following items and take a photo that shows:
B) I put the rooming list and cash in the envelope and immediately deliver this to the front desk staff, preferably when two people are at the desk, or someone that I have a working relationship with, and I say, “Please place this envelope directly in the Housekeeping Manager’s mailbox.” I stay to make sure I see the envelope go into their mailbox or at least go into the staff room and I thank the person for doing that when they return. Many front desks have cameras, and if I see one, I make sure to look at the camera for a moment so there is a record of me having delivered the tip envelope.
C) Depending on the situation, I might email my manager at the main office about this being delivered. Regardless, I always include this photo when I electronically submit all my transaction receipts at the end of the trip for reconciliation. Lastly, I keep a copy of this with my trip documents in my own files and I never get rid of this information.
This sounds a bit like overkill, but again, integrity is everything in this business; I want to make sure those who have helped my travelers receive their tips, and I also wish to practice CYA [Cover Your Backside].
On a walking tour that I led last year, a woman approached and asked about housekeeping tips since they were supposedly included in what she and others on the trip had paid. On two separate trips, with other companies, she found the tipping policy to be gray or nonexistent. This was a concern for the woman as her mother had been a housekeeper for decades and rarely received tips or was recognized. I agreed that housekeeping staff are the unsung heroes of any tour, and I wanted them to receive what was theirs. I explained the company she was currently traveling with recognized this was an issue and provided tip money to the leader to then pay the housekeeping manager directly. And, to ensure better accountability, I briefly mentioned my own process. The woman choked up and began to cry. She returned a few minutes later and thanked me for caring. At the end of the trip, she thanked me again and said she would be traveling again with the same company.
People on a travel itinerary, (also known as PAX, a short form for “passengers” in the travel industry) can sometimes select a hike that is beyond their current ability, and once on the trail, this can be disheartening, embarrassing, and even dangerous. How does a trip leader provide opportunities that allow travelers to make better decisions about hikes before they even set foot on the trail?
On this particular coastal trip, in Oregon, we have hikes that occur simultaneously (harder and easier hike options) that allow hikers with different interests and skill levels to participate. Throughout the program, I offer multiple opportunities for travelers to learn about upcoming hikes, this includes:
The photo shows both sides of the same 3 laminated sheets. These include:
Sheet A: This includes the WHY I want them to review this. On one side is the name of the area being visited, “Cape Perpetua,” and the header, “What Hike is Best for Me?” The other side includes large text, “The attached documents were created to help you make a well-informed decision about the two hike options at Cape Perpetua. Please, review them. Thank you! – Trip Leader, Mark”
Sheet B: Has information on the SHORTER hike; on one side is a high-quality map showing elevation lines and the route. Included is information about the duration, elevation gain, length, and a description. This is the suggested hike for travelers who want a more relaxed experience, can look for whales along the coast, enjoy photographing the scenery, and see old-growth in a temperate rainforest. The other side has a full-color image of one of an area we will be visiting.
Sheet C: Has information on the LONGER hike; on one side is a high-quality map showing elevation lines and the route. Included is information about the duration, elevation gain, length, and a description. This is the suggested hike for those who want to explore the heart of a temperate rainforest, see lots of old-growth, and get their heart pumping with a gain of 1,000 feet. The other side has a full-color image of the hike.
As a trip leader, the first interactions with your group are golden. Participants want to know if they will be safe and if you as a leader are professional, approachable, and will help them to succeed in this adventure. Operations differ at different travel companies, but here are 3 golden moments that can set the tone of your entire adventure travel program.
Golden Moment #1: The Pre-Trip Communication Email
Not all companies provide this information to leaders before a trip, but If you have access to names and emails -and time- sending a pre-trip communication to your participants can be golden. You will help your travelers be better prepared, and they will greatly appreciate your effort.
If you don’t have access to this information, don’t worry, just make sure Golden Moment #2 is knocked out of the park.
Golden Moment #2: Checking-In
This differs from company to company, but at the trip’s beginning, there is often a quick check-in followed shortly after that by a more formal welcome. This part covers the check-in. Keep the check-in short and sweet and down to a few basics:
Golden Moment #3: The First Night Welcome / Dinner / Presentation
I amend these depending on the situation such as the speed of when dinner is ready, how tired participants are, etc. My notes are for a group no larger than 24 travelers.
In the Room: (If this is possible, I have arrived much earlier to set up and review paperwork)
These are some core items to include in a welcome:
These first three interactions with your group are golden. Let them see that they are in professional hands, that you love what you do, that you respect their time, and assure them they will be having a life-enhancing experience on your adventure travel trip.
When leading an educational adventure how does one tell the program’s story, while keeping those on your tour informed, imparting knowledge that helps them to make a connection, is lightweight, and “on the go?”
When building out my interpretive program I develop it so I can carry laminated sheets. For lack of a better term, I often call them placards. Here is the set of placards I use while visiting central Oregon on a 6-day educational travel program. There are about 80 placards that support my trip’s 1 interpretive theme and 3 sub-themes.
I also have about 10 placards with just data. For example, when we visit Bend, Oregon, travelers want to know about the cost of housing, population, etc. While I sometimes use the placards to help me remember, and even after discussing them, I often pass around the placards or share them during a meal so people can read at their leisure and better the photos.
On each placard, I include a color photo on one side and on the other text in 14-point font. This makes it easier to read for eyes that are over 50.
When I am working with a local or knowledge expert, I try to research their emphasis and then selectively use my materials to help them tell their story. It is like helping to set the stage so the sage on that stage can better succeed.
One of my favorite uses of placards was on an intergenerational (grandparents and their grandchildren) trip to Crater Lake National Park. That morning, I gave a brief presentation about where we were visiting and what to look out for, including a rare sight known as The Old Man of the Lake, a centuries old tree trunk that floats upright and traverses the lake’s clear waters. When I was done, I passed the placards around so people who wanted could read up a bit more. The placards included:
– basics about the lake water’s clarity
– the newts & crawdads of the area
– key info about the lake’s depth with a detailed satellite image
– how the lake is the source point of various watersheds
– more about the Old Man of the Lake (shown left).
Then our group was to hike 700 feet down to Cleetwood Cove where we would board a boat for a two-hour boat ride inside the 5-mile wide caldera. While returning across the lake, one of the kids called out that she had seen in the distance something on the water. She asked the caption if the boat could investigate, the captain did and everyone received a rare surprise, seeing the Old Man of the Lake up close.
Afterward, the captain pulled me aside and mentioned that he had known where the Old Man of the Lake was, but it was just far enough out of our route that he was not going to make a stop unless someone said they had observed it. She was surprised that someone so young in my group knew about the old man and was so eager about seeing this wonderful natural feature.
It is feedback like that that makes my job so wonderful, and having items that are lightweight, supports a theme, adds that bit of magic that makes travel so wonderful, and can better help me keep the program on schedule, are golden.
If interpretation is an idea you would like to know more about, here is a short video from the National Association for Interpretation.
Whether you are running an eco-trip, daily hikes, a week-long active travel program, or leading a bus trip, participants like knowing what to expect. Providing them with good information -throughout the day at key times- can help you, and the travelers, focus on the rest of the trip. Here are some hard-learned tips.
I plan my updates the evening before, it’s often about 9 pm when I have returned to my room and can prepare my materials and what I need to be successful that next day. This includes updating the schedule to include recent updates, planning around unexpected changes, and mapping this out so the people I am responsible for can have a safe and enjoyable time. I usually write it out on lined paper, or waterproof paper for taking into the field, though an iPad or similar could be used for more in-city programs.
The daily updates look something like this:
Breakfast Announcements: (What to Expect That Day)
Lunch or Early Afternoon Update (What to Expect Later in the Afternoon)
Pre-Dinner Update (What to Expect That Evening)
Post-Dinner Update (What to Expect the Next Day):
I’m always informing my travelers about what to expect throughout the day at key times. At the end of the day when I return to my room, I plan out the next day based on any recent changes, and the whole process repeats. I find I can use about 90% of the same materials on future trips, but it’s that 10% where new problems often hide, so I always have to review the schedule, make tweaks, and map things out for those on my trip.
Creeks and rivers are amazing storytellers – they can teach, captivate, and inspire curious minds.
I always try to include creeks and rivers into the larger interpretive theme of a tour or educational travel program, especially when these waterways can provoke people into broadening their horizons.
It’s always fun to open up an itinerary so trip participants can look under rocks, get their feet wet, observe critters in the water, touch, hear, smell, see, and learn more about the story of a place.
To help with bringing this story to life I bring along a simple “Water Discovery Kit.” The kit can be made at home, packs well, and weighs just a few pounds. It includes:
Everything on the list fits inside the bucket, except for the Secchi disk which I carry separately. The kit can be used by elementary kids on up, though it works best when various generations (grandparents and grandchildren) are involved.
Shown: Two vegan “small plate” dishes enjoyed at an Indian restaurant while on tour; Gobi Manchurian – fried cauliflower tossed in a sweet and sour sauce, and Samosa Chaat – two savory bean and pea pastries topped with a garbanzo bean curry and house chutneys.
As a trip leader, I love creating meaningful experiences for participants — especially through food. I’m also a vegan who loves to travel and engage new places through local tastes. For me, tour directing and eating vegan are complimentary flavors.
That’s why I’m surprised when fellow tour directors express derision towards vegans. These sentiments were summed up at a recent guide training when a group presented their hot topics titled, VEGAN ISSUES. The frustration was perplexing because to be blunt, vegans aren’t problems on tour. As with any interpretive travel what is required is a better knowledge of the audience. Here’s seven survival tips for tour directors dealing with “vegan issues.”
1. Why are vegans, vegan? And, what is plant-based?
Vegans eat the same food as everyone else, except it’s not made from animals. Vegans value compassion. They seek to eliminate, as much as practical and possible, the use of and exploitation of animals in their everyday lives. They understand the most immediate way to enact compassion is to control what they put on their plate. Another group to know about are travelers who are plant-based; they eat plants solely for dietary or health benefits. Veganism takes plant-based a step further and includes the ethical component.
2. Why are vegans quiet?
Vegans are often stereotyped as being quiet. Some can be. Many vegans tend to be reserved when traveling because they don’t want to be derided. Here are some actual comments by professional-level tour directors about vegans:
“Why don’t they eat like normal people?â€
“If they can’t eat normal food on a tour, they should be made to eat what the rest eat!â€
“They seem smart, too bad they can’t figure out what they’re going to eat this week.â€
Is it any wonder a traveler might be quiet when a tour director’s personal biases (yes, biases) are seeping into other communications? Trip leaders need to understand that everyone on their tour want to eat good-tasting, wholesome food. Vegans just want food without the animal or the hidden animal products.
3. Why are they vegan at home, but not while traveling?
I often hear trip leaders say, “Why are they vegan at home, but not while traveling?†At home, all of us can control ingredients, quantity, salt, oils, etc., but this can be very difficult for anyone during a week-long tour. Vegans have learned to be pros when it comes to ordering food selectively at restaurants to avoid hidden animal products, substituting side dishes, or supplementing their travel meals by visiting the store. However, on tour, most of the pre-selected restaurants on an itinerary are solidly meat-centric. When confronted with zero choices many vegan travelers just won’t eat at all, others might order various side dishes to create something of a meal. Others might make a “what causes the least harm†decision. A few might substitute fish, though these are usually travelers who need to eat something (anything) at each meal to regulate blood sugar or taking medicine with food.
4. Why don’t they eat the special vegan meal?
The biggest frustration I’ve heard from tour directors is that the specially prepared vegan meal rarely gets eaten. I can say without hesitation – 95% of the specially prepared vegan meals on tours are notoriously bad. These vegan meals might be made by well-intentioned kitchens, but staff often have no clue what vegans eat and the results can range from lackluster to frightful. If someone on tour is skipping meals, their basic needs are not being met.
5. What about vegans eating alternative meat on tours?
The target audience for alternative meat products aren’t plant-eaters, the target audience are meat-eaters who want to reduce the amount of meat they are eating. To many vegans, alternative meat is junk food and should be eaten sparingly.
6. What do vegans eat?
Vegan food can be as diverse as a fresh salad or pizza. I like food that is unrefined or minimally refined and excludes or minimizes meat, dairy products, and eggs. Vegan food can include apples, bananas, blueberries, oranges, strawberries, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, potatoes, corn, green peas, winter squash, barley, millet, oats, quinoa, wheat berries, brown rice, black beans, chickpeas, lentils, pinto beans, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, tahini, almond butter, or even rice, soy, oat, almond, and cashew milk. The entire vegetable and fruit aisle at the store is vegan. A good part of the grain aisle and some of the bread aisle is vegan. Additionally, there are plant-based mayonnaise, cheeses and other sandwich condiments that taste like traditional products and are cost-effective. On the more recreation and social side, most french fries and beer are vegan. There’s no shortage of plant-based foods or creative ways to eat vegan while on tour, here’s a few:
Shown: Some of the vegan meals, desserts, and snacks served on the tours and trips I’ve led.
7. How should I talk with a vegan on my tour?
Have a conversation with them as you would with anyone on your trip. Remember, vegans want to eat delicious food too, if they have a question about food it’s originating from a place of compassion. Use compassion as a starting point in your own conversation with trip travelers. I try to set this tone in my pre-trip welcome letter, I explain that while our trip has made efforts to eat at places that offer a variety of foods some of the menus can be limited. I add that we will have an opportunity to stop by a local grocery store so all participants can supplement food, and grab something fresh and healthy if needed. At times when travelers explore a town on their own, I always find a local restaurant that offers a selection of vegan options and invite others to join me. I also communicate with the office about locating restaurants that are generally healthier. During the tour, I speak with the kitchen to see about suggestions if something can be substituted.
On a tour, everyone can experience new places through local tastes. It does requires some up-front communication with travelers about what to expect on a trip. It also requires some greater knowledge of your audience.
Note: The list of foods on #6 comes from Forks Over Knives
In recent years, adventure learning companies have focused on quantity versus quality in regards to their programs. As a trip leader, I’ve seen it too often.
In a rush to increase destination offerings, for a wider audience, many of the experiences are often not in context with the purpose of the trip. The result is that after a week-long program the guest remembers they participated in some fun things, but are not exactly sure how they grew as a person. If they cannot successfully answer this, then how is your company unique? And, why should they return?
An easy way to help guests grow, and nurture them for joining future trips, is to keep all of the travel program’s experiences in context with a big idea. In short, what is the big idea you want your guests/participants to remember? Think of a big idea as a unifying theme for the trip. All of the site visits, excursions, and explorations on the trip should gravitate around this big idea.
It is very easy to build a program around generic information, which is what most tourism companies do (see photo below). It is more challenging to design an adventure learning travel program around a unifying message where all of the experiences (walks, food, guest speakers, site visits, etc) are in context with a big idea. When travel experiences are in context, guests remember they had fun, but also their discoveries.
All program managers at learning/adventure travel companies wrestle with how best to design quality programs. The most common approach is to think of a subject or a destination (as fire, central Oregon, or Crater Lake) and build the program around it. This seems simple enough, yet themes are a continuous source of frustration, ambiguity, and pain. I’ve seen friends and co-workers, who are solid program managers, struggle with themes that never effectively come together into a cohesive whole.
The problem arises because themes are thought of as nouns. While they do include destinations and things, the essential ingredient for designing a theme is to think of it as a verb.
Some examples:
A multi-day program built around a topic of “fire” now becomes the theme, “Discover how fire helps forge every aspect of our life (sub-themes include: homes/communities, food preparation, entertainment, arts, places we play, and our survival).”
A week-long bus/hiking/rafting program with a topic of the “Seven Wonders of Oregon” transforms into a theme of, “Exploring Oregon’s dynamic geology allows for first-hand discovery and connection to one of the most fundamental forces of nature – in both its creative and destructive roles.”
An active hiking program with a topic of “Exploring Crater Lake” evolves into the theme, “Crater Lake’s breathtaking beauty, seasonal weather extremes, and distinguishing natural and cultural features, combined with a variety of recreational opportunities, provide visitors with abundant chances for discovery, reflection, and inspiration.”
Another way of thinking about a theme is to answer, “What is the big idea I want participants to remember?” Creating a theme in this light focus all of the activities and interactions around a single idea; it helps the program designer and the trip leaders focus on what is relevant while bringing the program to life.