The Back Story from Owner Dave Matthews

 

I founded a tour company in 1996, and built the firm up with continuous growth serving private groups for 23 years. In October 2019, I sold most of the firm.

 

The sale gave me the opportunity to start a fresh company focusing on several services from specialized tours, writing, speaking, consulting, video production and other services in the travel industry, not to mention more time for personal explorations and volunteering. Due to our sales agreement with the previous firm, we can't serve Ohio-based tour groups until October 2022.

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It has been an amazing journey, and rarely does a day go by when I don't think about how special it is to provide incredible experiences for so many guests. 

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People often ask how I got into this business. My background is journalism, public relations and marketing. I was minding my own business running my PR firm, PRime Communications, when I saw the need for a Rose Bowl tour for Ohio State students to the 1997 Rose Bowl. So in late 1996 I started tour company with a very similar name as the PR firm to do that one trip, which ended up having a number of seniors citizens on board. It was a hit (especially when the Buckeyes won) and I went back to my PR business. But people started asking if I could do a tour for this group and that group, so I talked to some group leaders, and we started landing senior center tours. Within a year, I decided to change from PR to full-time tours. The support from our group leaders and guests was wonderful and I consider many group leaders as friends. My background in public relations helped me spread the word about what we do without spending a fortune on paid advertising and mailing brochures. From the start, our goal was to focus on private groups and create great travel experiences for their members, executives, parishioners or students.

 

But the Rose Bowl wasn't actually my first group tour. Well before that, I was an Army airborne officer in Italy in the 1980s and was asked to do a week-long ski trip in the Italian Alps for 150 paratroopers. The trip was a hit, and I had a blast at that lovely resort. Then it was back to being a paratrooper until 1996 when that Rose Bowl tour popped into my head.

 

The tour company became a recognized leader in sports travel, as well as group tours for schools, bands, senior centers, corporations and other groups.

Building on that success and Dave’s travel experience abroad, the firm added European Tours, specializing in Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Italy and more. 

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Aside from custom tours, I have kept my fingers in freelance writing when time permits. I've written hundreds of travel articles for various publications, and in recent years have been assigned to write how-to articles for travel industry trade magazines. I also have background in video production, photography and marketing.

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Call us today at 614-581-2126 or e-mail us at Dave@EnrichmentTravel.com if you need assistance in planning your next trip, or if your travel organization would like to boost your marketing and get your story out to travelers.