IMPACT Series: "Stories can heal us": How Mercat Tours Impacts their Team & City

Tourpreneur Tour Business Podcast

Mitch Bach begins Tourpreneur's IMPACT series with an interview with Kat Brogan of Mercat Tours in Edinburgh, Scotland, whose mission is to "make meaningful connections" through the power of storytelling.

The end of the interview encapsulates the point of this new series, so be sure to listen to the end. Our IMPACT podcasts are about how travel companies around the world answer the questions: what are you doing to make a meaningful impact in your business, community and the tourism industry?

Kat is leading a company that takes this seriously. Here are just some of the topics and initiatives we cover:

• How important it is to create a culture of trust in your team.
• The creation of "The Mercat Deal"—a pledge to her team and the city of Edinburgh to do right by everyone that's a stakeholder in the community.
• Her commitment to offering her team members a living wage, with permanent contracts, guaranteed "living hours", and profit sharing bonuses.
• How Kat empowers and connects with her guides through a huge variety of channels, in-person and virtually.
• How Kat assesses her whole customer journey to give the feedback her entire team wants, using formal and informal assessments, anonymous surveys, secret shoppers and more, in order to take a "360" look at her business and team.
• Mercat's participation in "Our Stories, Our City" initiative to raise money for those on the margins through the power of storytelling.

Learn more:

• Learn about the impact they're making on Edinburgh through their Our Stories Our City initiative, in partnership with several local organizations.
• View The Mercat Deal, Mercat's promises to its team and community about what they're doing to ensure they're a responsible, ethical, quality participant in the local environment and global tourism industry.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sponsored by Google 'Things to do'

Want more direct bookings and greater exposure on Google? Then go check out Tourpreneur's free course on using Google 'Things to do', a new program offering tour operators a chance to display their tours across new Google locations. Learn more here: tourpreneur.com/google