“I regret not moving on to Tourwriter earlier. It has been a game-changer as far as time-saving in the office.
Before Tourwriter
- Hours for even a basic half-day quote
- 1.5 to 2 days for a nine-day itinerary
- Separate files for pricing and content, hard to find and reuse
After Tourwriter
- 10 minutes for a half-day quote
- 9 day quote from scratch in less than 3 hours or 2 minutes to adapt existing quote
- Automatic pricing recalculation when the itinerary changes
Growth
- Almost 10 years operating in Perth and Western Australia
- 48% conversion on itineraries created
- Increasing booking volumes without hiring
Efficiency gains
- One week to onboard and set-up
- Roughly one day to learn the system
- 80% reduction in time on multi-day quotes
- Minutes to reproduce a near-identical trip
Overview and background
Paul Montague used to lose whole days to a single quote. He would open Word, hunt through old files for a similar itinerary, then copy and paste his way to a proposal while a pricing spreadsheet ran alongside it. A nine-day quote could swallow half of his week. For a small tour business in Perth, that time came straight out of the days he could have spent guiding or winning new work.
Up Close and Local Tours has run for almost ten years, and Paul had heard about Tourwriter for two of them before he committed. He regrets waiting. This is how a small operator moved off spreadsheets and Word documents, set the whole system up in a week, and reclaimed most of the time each quote used to cost him.
Up Close and Local Tours is a small, bespoke tour operator based in Perth, Western Australia. Paul founded it in 2017 to show off a city he felt was underrated, running private wine, food, whisky and wildlife tours across the Swan Valley, Fremantle, Bickley Valley and beyond. His clientele leans international, with the US, Canada, UK and Singapore as his main source markets.
Whilst he started the business with no official degree in tourism, through his own extensive personal travel across the globe he was driven to create high-quality tours that offered authentic local experiences, hosted by a truly local tour guide - the type of tour that he himself would want to take.
“You go to places which are world famous, you get there and think, is this it? I realised we could actually showcase Perth a bit better.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
As an owner/operator, Paul knows that getting to know his customers before the tour means that he is able to deliver a more personalised experience when his guests arrive in Perth. But this also means being hands on in all aspects of the business, and the hours he lost to inefficient admin were hours he could no longer spare.
The villain was the toolkit itself. Every quote meant Excel for pricing and Word for the itinerary, with no reliable way to reuse past work.
“Some of our itineraries can be quite unique and lengthy, so it could be a combination of three of four previous itineraries pulled into a new iteration with some personalised tweaks. The ability to search within the content of documents often doesn't work so it was a nightmare to find what I wanted to copy and paste.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
A three-day quote took the better part of a day. A nine-day quote took the better part of two days.
Choosing Tourwriter and setting up in a week
Paul had known about Tourwriter for a couple of years before he acted. Two things held him back.
“Potentially cost was one. But also, when you're caught up working in your business, doing tours seven days a week, you don't have time to invest in those things, especially the hours that go into setting it up. I thought I needed to take two weeks off just to focus on learning it.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
The turning point came when Paul decided to focus the business more on customised multi-day itineraries. Whilst he thrives on delivering these ultra-personalised experiences, the amount of admin was the roadblock. Paul needed the operation to run more efficiently behind the scenes. He looked at one other platform first, and the gap was immediate.
“It built the itinerary nicely, but you still had to do all your pricing on a spreadsheet in the background. We thought that was bizarre, because that is half the work.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Tourwriter's built-in pricing inside the itinerary builder settled the decision. His advice to any operator weighing cost against effort is blunt, because the delay cost him more than the software would have.
“I would say do not hesitate, jump at it. Even though it might be slightly out of your budget at the time, it will definitely save you a lot of time and money in the long run.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
The onboarding worry that had kept Paul away for two years turned out to be the smallest part. Learning the system took about a day. Loading every supplier and resource so each one looked consistent was measured in days, not months.
“I'd say a week of setting everything up, around 40 hours, though I spread it over a fortnight. A good solid week and you are set up.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Tourwriter has built tour operator software since 2004. With more than twenty years of development shaped by boutique operators the pricing, templates and search fit the way a small tour operator or destination management company actually works, rather than forcing the operator to fit the software.
Presentation was the other decider. A branded proposal that carries photography lands very differently from a Word file saved as a PDF.
“We've had a lot of positive feedback, not just from customers but also from travel agents that we work with, and they're blown away by the quality. As soon as you add images it looks a thousand times better, and it makes it easier for them to present to their clients. You cannot really compete with that.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Those branded proposals now do double duty. When Paul quotes a trip for a travel agent, the agent uploads it and resells it, so one itinerary can turn into repeat bookings. Mass-market AI trip planners and OTA recommendation engines keep getting slicker, yet a boutique operator running purpose-built software stays ahead on depth, personal knowledge and the speed of a reply, the things a generic algorithm cannot fake.
The results
The biggest result for Paul has been time. Getting back 80% of time spent quoting to instead focus on running tours and promoting the business has been essential.
“On a quote for a three-day itinerary we used to spend 4-5 hours at least. Now, you can create the same thing in less than a quarter of the time by duplicating or using a template, and then making the individual changes so it suits each client. If you have a guest that wants a tour almost that is exactly the same as one you've already created, it is literally minutes.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
The reason is the build itself.
“When you are working in Word, you have to go and find all that information and copy and paste it, and that is the bit that sucks your time. With Tourwriter it is dragging and dropping, and it is just so simple.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Automatic pricing removes a category of error too, and keeps up when a client asks for a change.
“It's easy to leave money on the table. Sometimes you'd quote something similar and find you were $100 more a year ago, and think, why is that? With Tourwriter, my guide day rate is fixed. It doesn't change, which makes it a hell of a lot easier.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Those reclaimed hours are what a smaller team runs on. Up Close and Local Tours confirms 48% of the itineraries it creates, and the real figure is higher, because some unconfirmed quotes are the ones agents are still reselling. Paul runs bookings through Redzy and Xero and reckons he has barely scratched the surface on what Tourwriter can do. He is looking forward to continuing to grow and learn with the platform.
“We are probably using about 5% of what Tourwriter can actually do.”
Paul Montague, Founder, Up Close and Local Tours
Tourwriter is now central to how he works. He just wishes he had started sooner.
What guests say
“Paul at Up Close and Local Tours was easy to communicate with, and he was quick to adapt his guided tours to meet my needs. With a two-day (overnight) cruise stop, he met me right off the ship and we visited the beach and park as we moved through Fremantle to Perth. After lunch at a local brewery, we tackled the visits to the four churches I needed to visit and photograph, and then we did a walking tour of Perth with a focus on murals and street art before heading back to the port.”
“It was a wonderful day with Paul as he showed us the sites in Perth and then took us to the winery. Best wine we had in Australia! Great van for transportation of a small group. He was engaging and extremely knowledgeable as a third generation WA resident. We had never been to Perth, but after the tour we definitely want to go back and have Paul show us around again.”
“I engaged Paul's service to customize an 8D7N tour for my family. Suffice to say, the tour surpassed all our expectations. Paul is a meticulous and efficient planner and a very friendly guide. He was responsive to our likings and preferences. We enjoyed our stay very much.”
How did Up Close and Local Tours manage quoting before using itinerary software?
Paul Montague built every quote in Word and priced it in a separate Excel spreadsheet, with no reliable way to reuse past work, so he copied and pasted from old files. A three-day quote took at least four hours, and a nine-day quote took days.
Why do tour operators delay switching to itinerary software?
Cost and time are the usual blockers. Paul Montague put it off for two years, partly on price and partly because running tours seven days a week left no room to set a new system up. His advice now is not to hesitate, because the software saves far more time and money than it costs.
How long does it take to set up Tourwriter as a one-person business?
Learning the system took Paul Montague about a day. Loading every supplier and resource with consistent presentation took roughly one week of work, spread across a fortnight. It is a one-time setup, and short tutorial videos let a busy owner learn in ten-minute sessions.
Is Tourwriter easy to learn with no software background?
Paul Montague came to it with no tourism or software background and describes it as simple, roughly a solid day to learn. Day-to-day work relies on dragging and dropping activities, duplicating templates, and searching by tag, so building a quote needs no technical skill.
How does Tourwriter handle pricing inside an itinerary?
Tourwriter stores rates centrally and calculates pricing as the itinerary is built. When a traveller adds a day, removes an activity, or extends an afternoon, the price updates automatically. Fixed resources, such as a guide day rate, stay consistent across every quote.
How much time can a tour operator save by building quotes in Tourwriter?
Up Close and Local Tours cut quote time by about 80%. Multi-day quotes take less than a quarter of the previous time, and near-identical trips can be produced in minutes.
Do better-looking proposals win more business?
Paul Montague reports that customers and travel agents respond strongly to proposals with photography. Compared with a Word-based PDF, a branded itinerary made the business look more professional than competitors. Quotes built for agents can also be resold, turning one itinerary into repeat bookings.
Can Tourwriter help a smaller team keep growing?
Yes. When his business partner stepped back from day-to-day work, the time Tourwriter saved on quoting let Paul Montague keep the business running and growing largely on his own. Faster builds and automatic pricing absorbed work a second person used to share.
Can Tourwriter work for operators who use other booking and accounting tools?
Yes. Up Close and Local Tours runs bookings and payments through Redzy and Xero while using Tourwriter for quoting and proposals. Operators can adopt the itinerary and pricing tools first and connect wider features, including the Xero integration, as they grow.
Up Close and Local Tours
Up Close and Local Tours is a Perth, Western Australia small-group operator running private wine, food, whisky and wildlife tours across the Swan Valley, Fremantle, Bickley Valley and beyond. Founded in 2017, it holds a 5.0 traveller rating and works with international guests and travel agents alike.
Paul Montague
Paul founded Up Close and Local Tours in 2017 and runs it largely single-handed, designing and guiding every trip. A WSET-qualified wine guide, he is the sole Tourwriter user in the business.
