OurExploreris a new-ish travel site, based in Australia, that aims to make it easier for people to connect with local tour guides when traveling. It’s a different approach to the many other sites that aggregate user-generated content to provide traveler’s tips, but if you’ve ever been hounded by people claiming to be tour guides while traveling abroad then you’ll understand why a site that makes finding trusted local tour guides easy is so valuable.

I managed to catch up with founder David Cunningham to have a chat about how the site’s been going since it launched 6 months ago and what his future plans are. Enjoy.

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Tell us about Our Explorer.
OurExplorer has over 1,200 private tour guides covering 107 countries worldwide – making it the biggest professional tour guide directory in the world and growing all the time. 

Have you ever thought whilst visiting a new destination, “I wonder where the locals eat, drink, fish, ski, shop or party?” OurExplorer suggests its time for us all to stop simply sight-seeing but rather start exploring with the local wisdom and knowledge of a private tour guide.

OurExplorer help you explore your next destination through the eyes of a local, with a full refund if you are not satisfied with your experience. 
Connect with and book in advance any of the numerous professional tour guides at the award winning www.ourexplorer.com

What’s your background?
Born in Ireland in 1976 - I started my career in JPMorgan London in 1999 and later in JPMorgan Asia until 2002 where I learnt the important people, risk management and communication skills that would serve me well in later years.

I pioneered into the emerging market of China where I founded the real estate investment company “Shanghai Vision Ltd” in 2002. In just 11 months Shanghai Vision Ltd had sales offices in Ireland, UK and Australia.

How did you come up with the Our Explorer idea?
After selling the China Real Estate firm in 2007 I was looking for the next venture. A longtail, niche online business was my focus. While chatting to a Tour Guide in Bolivia it became clear that there was no successful web tool for Tour Guides to market their services and therefore get low cost client bookings. So I set 1 up - www.ourexplorer.com

Can you pass on stats? UV, pageviews, growth rate etc.
OurExplorer only launched 6 months ago. June 13th 2008. OurExplorer is niche and practically first-mover so volumes are currently low =  UV’s are at 6,780 in December, pageviews December were 47,762. Monthly growth is amount 17.5% currently.

How much Angel funding did you get and who did you get it from?
300k AUD from a group of travel CEO’s in Germany.

Re: payments -do you keep the deposit in escrow or does it go straight through to the provider?
OurExplorer only take a 10% deposit from the traveller to confirm the tour guide. The remaining 90% is then paid directly by the traveller to the Tour Guide in cash on the day of the tour.

Is the business profitable yet? If so, can you pass on numbers?
Not profitable…yet.

What are you plans for the site?
The vision for OurExplorer can be seen at in a video we’ve posted HERE

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Thanks to David for the interview and for also being so open with numbers and plans.