The Art of Setting and Managing Guest Expectations for Unforgettable Tours
This is the first of our series on managing crises in the tourism industry. Be sure to catch up on the whole series here.
Thousands of Canadian travelers were canceling their bookings with American tour companies recently, citing political tensions as their reason. While most tour businesses watched helplessly as reservations disappeared, industry veterans Rick Steves and Tom Hale turned this potential disaster into an opportunity for deeper customer connection.
As a Canada-based business working with tour operators across North America, we’ve had a front-row seat to the recent tensions between Canada and the United States. The new United States President has made repeated provocative statements about making Canada the 51st state, launched an unprovoked trade war, and created a diplomatic crisis between two countries that have historically been very close allies.
This situation put American tour companies with Canadian (and even worldwide) customers in an extremely difficult position. Today, I want to break down how two tour business owners—Rick Steves, a travel writer and TV personality, and Tom Hale, who owns Backroads Tours—are masterfully navigating this crisis with their communications.
More importantly, I want to highlight what they did so you can leverage these best practices during any period of uncertainty or disruption, whether from economic recession fears, climate challenges, regional conflicts, or political tensions.
The Challenge They Faced
Both Rick Steves Europe and Backroads Tours were facing a genuine threat. Canadian customers were canceling bookings en masse and explicitly citing the political situation as their reason. Together, these companies have thousands of Canadian customers who were questioning whether they should continue doing business with American companies and actively canceling their upcoming multi-day holidays.
Be sure to read the full messages from Rick Steves and Tom Hale. For now, let’s examine five best practices that made their crisis communication so effective.
1. Acknowledge Reality Without Deflection
First, both tour business owners directly acknowledged the situation without downplaying or ignoring it.
Steves wrote:
Similarly, Hale wrote:
Notice what they’re doing here—validating their customers’ concerns rather than dismissing them. This is crucial because it builds trust. It shows that they care enough to listen and are acknowledging and validating those concerns and feelings.
2. Humanize Your Brand
The second brilliant move was having these messages come from the founders themselves. Their travel companies were humanized through personal connections to Canada and the Canadian people.
Steves shared:
Hale emphasized Backroads’ deep Canadian roots:
These personal touches transform faceless large corporations into human beings with authentic connections. Both leaders are essentially saying: “We’re not just an American company, but we as human beings and the team that makes up these companies have deep and meaningful ties to your community.”
3. Reaffirm Your Values
The third crucial move was articulating their values while creating a clear distinction between their businesses and the broader political climate.
Steves emphasized:
He then directly addressed the separation issue:
This restatement of values serves to remind customers why they were drawn to you in the first place—why they may have spent their hard-earned travel dollars with you versus another company. This is about showing that this goes beyond transactions and the current political climate. These are our values, and if you share those values too, we want to reassure you that our values haven’t changed one bit.
4. Respect Customer Choice
Both leaders continued to respect their Canadian customers’ agency in this matter while obviously making the case for a continued relationship. They were empathetic and understanding enough to say that they get it if customers ultimately land on the other side of this debate.
Steves explicitly acknowledged:
This lack of defensiveness actually strengthens their position. By respecting his customers enough to support even their decision to leave, Steves is giving them one more reason to stay.
5. Give Compelling Reasons to Stay
Finally, both leaders provided specific reasons for customers to consider sticking around—some food for thought as they were thinking about their relationship with the company.
Steves quite deftly highlighted the economic impact:
Hale emphasized their deep Canadian employment roots:
Some of this might be obvious to you as a tour operator or tour business owner, but they did a great job of elegantly giving their Canadian clients and customers some reasons to reconsider cancellation. “Hey, we totally respect if you choose differently, but here’s some things to factor into your decision.”
What We Can Learn From These Crisis Communications
In times of uncertainty—whether from political tensions, economic reasons, or any other type of disruption or crisis that your ideal target guests might be going through—tour operators who thrive are the ones who can do the following five things:
- Acknowledge reality rather than hiding from it
- Humanize your brand through authentic personal connection
- Reaffirm your values while separating the business from the politics or broader situation
- Respect customer choice while making your case
- Give compelling reasons to maintain the relationship
This is where we see the power of truly understanding and listening to your ideal target guests. At Guest Focus, we teach this methodology of a Guest Deep Dive, and this is the perfect tool for times of uncertainty, flux, or change. We ultimately want to be guided by understanding and insights into our customers’ challenges, frustrations, pain points, and deepest aspirations.
Steves and Hale clearly took the time to listen, to understand, and to empathize with their Canadian clientele who were calling en masse and canceling, to understand and appreciate where they were coming from. By addressing these specific concerns head-on, they were able to demonstrate the kind of deep empathy required to navigate these situations.
When the world gets shaky, don’t retreat. Reach out with authenticity, with empathy, and with a clear sense of your values—that’s how we can turn a potential crisis into a way to more deeply connect with the people you’re looking to serve.
Read the next article in this crisis communications series here.
