When I took over Aquaduck, a ticket cost $36.
The owners before me were certain $40 was the ceiling. Cross it and the phone stops ringing. Everybody knew that.
I took the price to $50.
It took a few years and a proper plan, not one brave morning. Net profit per passenger went from $1 to $3. Same duck. Same tour. Same crew onboard.
That is what I do. I find the money that is already sitting in your business.
Most tourism operators are busy and broke
I have sat in a lot of tourism businesses over 20 years, as the operator, not the consultant. The pattern is nearly always the same.
Passenger numbers are up. Everyone is exhausted. The bank balance has not moved.
So the owner does the thing that feels obvious. Add another tour. Add another product. Add another market. More pressure, more staff, more risk, and the profit stays flat.
I have to say it plainly. Growing an unprofitable business just gives you a bigger unprofitable business.
Why profit per passenger is the number that matters
Turnover tells you almost nothing. It is a vanity figure and it hides a lot.
Let's say you carried 20,000 passengers last year. At $1 net profit each, that business made $20,000. At $3 each, the same business made $60,000. Same guests, same fuel, same wages.
Nothing about the operation changed. What changed was the price and where the bookings came from.
A healthy net profit margin in this industry sits between 15% and 25%. Most of the operators who call me are nowhere near it, and most of them do not know their profit per passenger when I ask.
That is not a criticism. It is just not a number the accountant hands you.
Where the needle actually moves
Three things move it, and none of them are marketing.
Your price. The Arival 2026 State of Experiences in ANZ report found 77% of operators here still use static pricing. One price, all year, every day. You are charging the same in the July school holidays as you are on a wet Tuesday in May. That is money left on the counter.
Your channel mix. Agents now account for 31% of bookings in this region, up from 24% in 2023. Operator websites have dropped to 28%. Agents earn their commission and I use them on purpose, but they take 20% to 30% of the ticket. At Aquaduck I moved online direct sales from 4% to 47% of turnover. That shift alone changes what you keep from every guest.
Your market mix. Empty midweek is not a marketing problem. It is a market mix problem. The market that fills your Saturday is not the market that fills your Tuesday, and no amount of social media posts will make it so. One adventure operator I work with built an entirely separate schools channel underneath their existing business to fill those quiet days. [Sarah, name them here if you have permission, otherwise leave as is.]
What working with me actually looks like
I start with your numbers, not your ideas.
Maximum capacity for every day and every tour across the year. Your cashflow. Every discount you have given the market, catalogued. Your distribution channel mix reviewed against your direct sales, month by month.
Then I ask hard questions and I hold you to the answers. That is the part most owners have never had. Making every strategic call on your own is lonely, and it is slow, and it is why good operators sit still for years.
I am not interested in being another expense in your business. My value shows up in your sales and in the price you sell your tickets at.
One thing to do in the next thirty minutes
Take your net profit from last financial year. Divide it by the number of passengers you carried.
That is your profit per passenger. Write it down and look at it.
Now ask yourself what would happen if that figure doubled. Not your passenger numbers. Just that one figure.
For most operators, doubling profit per passenger is a far easier job than doubling passengers. It costs you no extra fuel, no extra staff, and no extra hours.
I am Sarah Colgate. I have run tourism businesses on the Gold Coast including Aquaduck, Southern Cross Tours, Duckabout and iVenture Card. I have carried the risk, made payroll and sat exactly where you are sitting. I now work with operators who are working far too hard for what they keep.
Want an honest look at what your business keeps? Book a Growth Gap Call with me. We’ll identify the biggest gap and where to start.
