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Monday, August 16, 2010

USA Tour Pros releases THIRD Edition of NYC Study Pack

USA Tour Pros has completed a revision of our very well-received NYC Study Pack utilized by future Licensed NYC Tour Guides in their preparation for the exam. This is our THIRD Edition and is available to all in either an electronic or hard-copy version. We are proud to say that 100% of those who have used our NYC Study Pack have passed the NYC Sightseeing Exam, with 95% earning a star of distinction for their high score.

Daniel Minchew, who attended our Second NYC Training Session, said: “Whenever you plan to get the NYC license, I cannot recommend highly enough the prep course that Tom Schoenewald and Alice Devereaux at USA Tour Pros offer. While nothing is fully guaranteed, their students have a 100% pass rate. The study guide is brilliant!”

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Checking In with our Tour Pros

Hello again to all, we’ve been away working on quite a few things over the last few moths. I am hoping everyone who was looking to work a lot this past Spring and current Summer are finding work, although I am aware that is not the case for all. We have been working behind-the-scenes on a number of projects, including our re-working of our USA Tour Pros web site.

We have welcomed a new webmaster, George Liao, and continue to received awesome help and support from TDs like Mariann Millard, Alice Devereaux, Annie Fitzsimmons, Donna West, and Erika King. We are lucky to have such solid support staff and visionary friends as we try to grow into a more reliant and functional online friend to TDs all over the World.

Currently we are finalizing another editing of our NYC Study Pack, our official NYC Sightseeing Exam test resource book we’ve been able to assemble through the help of many Tour Pros. My writing and research partner, Alice Devereaux, has been a saint in taking a lot of her Jersey “shore time” to work on tightening up what we are offering in our research book. We feel it will be ready to ship very soon, in either the electronic or hard-copy version we’ve offered in the past.

As we’ve focused on the NYC Study Pack, we continue to research and develop of DC Study Pack and still are working on putting together a training class to help TDs preparing to take the DC Guide License Exam. We will certainly forward information to all, from right here, when we have news to share. Rest assured, we know (based on your many emails) many of you are interested in taking out prep class when it becomes available. Thanks for your interest!

We’ll be checking in again soon!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Ground Zero’s Shame: the Death Hawkers

This past week I took my school group to Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan for a look at the killing field of almost 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. With 8th graders there needs to be a lot more context used to fill them in what anyone my age already knows and remembers. They were, luckily, too young to know or remember. It’s a chance to teach and reflect, much like a visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

And again, on a perfect late-winter afternoon of sunshine and warming temps, came the rats of Ground Zero: the photo book sellers. My long-standing policy with these scumbags is to tell them once, “This group is not purchasing your book.” Then they get to decide if they are going to walk away. If they don’t, I turn to my group and announce just what these dregs of society are pushing: books of death, in living color. It’s a disgrace that the city of NYC, while trying to regulate Tour Professionals through Licensing, does not attempt to get these minions of macabre to go back into their holes. While there is a “no-sell” law specifically covering the areas I constantly see them selling, because they are moving they are “protected” by “their rights.”

Friday, February 19, 2010

USA Tour Pros Announces FREE* SERVICE starting March 15, 2010!

We are pleased to announce following successful talks in Silicon Valley, USA Tour Pros will become a FREE* SERVICE for Tour Pros! That’s right, any Tour Pro who has a completed profile within our system will be retained, while those currently Registered under anonymous screen names will be deleted on March 15, 2010.

This new business model will benefit the Tour Pro in a number of ways:
1) No out-of-pocket Membership fee
2) An online presence that is easy to create and virtually maintenance free
3) Referral service you will only pay for IF we land you a job!
3) FREE personal profile to be utilized in our database searches for Tour Operators
4) FREE access to the most comprehensive and thorough Resource Library in the business
5) FREE access to our well-received and professionally-acclaimed Virtual Tour Director (VTD) series
6) FREE ability to post video resumes, printed resumes, and the all-important work availability calendar!
7) Seamless compatibility with Facebook, Twitter, and our Yahoo online group

And much more!

Those currently paying Membership dues will receive a pro-rated refund check from USA Tour Pros before April 1, 2010.

So what are you waiting for? Register at: http://www.usatourpros.com/index.php/forums/member/register/ and starting March 15, 2010, enjoy all we offer for a price everyone can afford: FREE!

*(All Business Friends Membership fees will remain in effect).

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Big Success in the Big Apple!

What a weekend! Our group of Tour Pros who attended USA Tour Pros first NYC FAM trip and NYC Sightseeing Guide License Study Session were a wonderful blend of long-time professionals and newly-trained Tour Pros. The enthusiasm for all was palpable throughout our fur days together and the weather certainly cooperated with our event. And, it was heartening to see that our event, planned first and then unceremoniously trumped just two weeks before by another individual, was the superior of the two options for NYC training. When a local angle is needed to teach out-of-towners about moving a group in NYC, you need to rely on someone who lives there. Not a flatlander.

As of this morning, 20 out of 20 of our participants had passed the 150-question Sightseeing Guide License exam with an average score of 131. A full 90% had earned the coveted gold-star for scoring 120 or higher. Every member of the exam group checked-in following their test for a cordial de-briefing of their experience which we will utilize to teach our next group of FAM trip/Study Session participants even better. The superb assistance of Alice Devereaux and Sheryl Emmett, along with the support of the industry-leading Tour Operator USA Student Travel, and their Vice President Pat Neimeyer in particular, was what we needed to accomplish our success.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Our Very Own NYC Splash Down

Can it be a year already? I was actually taking the only nap I would take all year at the precise moment Sully brought his US Airways airplane down for a miraculous landing on the Hudson RIver, directly behind my home. And now here we are just one week from taking USA Tour Pros for what we believe will be our first spectacular landing in NYC!

For the past two months, a team of Alice Devereaux, Pat Neimeyer of USA Student Travel and I have been organizing a 3-day NYC FAM Trip/NYC Sightseeing Guide Exam Study Session, to be held January 22-24, 2010 in Manhattan. And now is our time to start making big news across the Hudson. And we couldn’t be better prepared.

Despite the sinister scheduling of a competing, similar event scheduled just two weeks before ours by someone of questionable integrity, we managed to pull in three times the number of participants because our event will be that much better.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

At USA Tour Pros, we’re very Thankful!

Just a day before Turkey Day and I have a lot to be thankful for. Let me count the ways…

I’m Thankful for:

1) ...my family and friends, for their unwavering support for this venture and my career as a Tour Pro.

2) ...my Web master Tommy Nguyen, for always being on-call to solve the slightest blip here on USA Tour Pros!

3) ...my colleague and USA Tour Pros research guru Mariann Millard - her energy and enthusiasm is what being a true Professional is all about. I am quite lucky to have met such a wonderful person!