TP Huddle | Madrid | Culinary Tours
An experiential small-group business retreat that makes you more profitable. This February Huddle is designed specifically for culinary tour operators.
What Is A Huddle
A Huddle is not a conference. There are no keynotes, no breakout sessions, and no conference rooms.
It's a small group of tour operators (10-20 people) spending three days working on the specific challenges holding your tour business back right now.
You'll arrive with real problems. You'll leave with a plan you're committed to executing.
Who This Huddle Is For
Culinary tour operators who are stuck on something specific. Maybe it's scaling past your current revenue ceiling while maintaining the quality of your restaurant partnerships. Maybe it's delegation and guide training. Maybe it's deciding whether to expand to new cities or go deeper in your current market. Maybe it's restructuring your pricing or rethinking your itinerary design.
You should come if you're ready to make decisions. If you're just exploring ideas casually, this probably isn't the right format.
You should come if you value getting real feedback from other food tour operators who understand the unique challenges of working with restaurants, managing tastings, and delivering culinary experiences.
You should come if you're willing to help others work through their challenges too. This only works when everyone contributes.
The Work
For this culinary-focused Huddle, expect to work on challenges specific to food tour businesses. Restaurant partnership structures. Guide training and quality control. Scaling while maintaining authenticity. Managing seasonal menu changes. Pricing strategies for premium experiences. Direct booking versus marketplace distribution. Building repeat business in the food tour space.
Your Coaching Team
This Huddle will be led by Peter Syme, Chris Torres, and Lauren Aloise.
Lauren Aloise founded Devour Tours in 2012, launching food tours from her Madrid apartment during the recession. She grew Devour into an award-winning company operating in 18 destinations across Europe and North America, welcoming over 150,000 guests while supporting small, family-run restaurants and food businesses. In 2021, Devour partnered with Walks (now both part of City Experiences), and Lauren now serves as VP of Marketing for the combined operation.
Peter Syme is a former day and multi-day tour operator with 40+ years as a strategy consultant for major travel companies. He knows how to facilitate the Diverge/Converge/Commit process. He knows when to let the group run and when to step in.
Chris Torres is the founder of Tourism Marketing Agency and author of Lookers Into Bookers, the most popular marketing book in the tour industry. He's spent 32 years helping operators turn browsers into buyers.
The three of them know how to make sure the loud voices don't dominate and the quiet voices get heard. More importantly, they know the food tour business. They've operated tours, sold tours, marketed tours, coached operators, scaled businesses, and worked with hundreds of companies.
The Practical Details
Dates: February 16-19, 2025
Location: Madrid, Spain
Group Size: 10-20 operators
What's Included:
Lodging for the retreat dates
Welcome dinner
The full three-day working program
Access to the group after the event for accountability and follow-up
What's Not Included:
Your travel to and from Madrid
Additional Meals + Drinks
To Get Registered
Choose your registration level and "Request To Join" at the link above. You will need to enter payment information but you will not be charged until your registration is reviewed and approved.
Please do not make any travel plans or book transit until your registration is approved.
One More Thing
You might be reading this and thinking "I'm not sure I'm ready" or "Maybe I should wait until I have my business more figured out."
Here's the reality: if you're waiting until everything is figured out, you'll never go. The operators who get the most from Huddles are the ones who show up with real problems they haven't been able to solve alone.
That's not a weakness. That's why we do this.