I had a long thought before putting the following story together and whether it should be here or not. You, my dear friends and customers, who went past the front page and contemplating to book our tours and packages, might want to know who Marina Wilson is. If she is the real deal and if she actually has something different to offer…
It has been 10 years since I started my own business, the boutique tour operating company, «Marina Wilson Private Tours LTD» (https://st-petersburg-visit.com). I was quite new to the travel business, when I decided to put a brake on my corporate HR career and start my own tour operating company from the scratch and no budget to back up. However, I had plenty of ideas, a solid management experience and mostly importantly a drive to create a unique product. Soon I developed a vision to offer a fresh alternative to established day tours offered by majority of tour operators: a private tour with a local friend.
The idea of a boutique tour operating business was very appealing to me from the very start. To be efficient you have to keep on learning and acquiring new skills. Unlike in a big corporation you do not have resources to employ a person to do every job. Unless you learn to be multi-skilled and excel at what you do, you are not going to survive and be competitve. A small business also means a very personalized product and unforgettable experiences for your guests and this is a kind of product I enjoy as a customer and I was eager to offer the same to my clientele.
Consequently my entrepreneurship activities brought me to an ambitious plan of building the tour operating business like no other. We have extended our geographical coverage and currently offer tours and packages to St Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, Tallinn, Riga, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki. I immensely enjoy doing what I do and put my heart and soul in offering the unique tailor-made product and putting together the customer-oriented, multi-functional tour support team. We pride ourselves on receiving Trip Advisor Certificates of Excellence in 2013-2019 based on reviews of our customers and also being rated as a Top Supplier by Viator and GetYourGuide, the world leading on line tour booking platforms.
One might wonder why I gave the company my name. 10 years ago I did not plan to develop my name as a brand but wanted to stress my personal responsibility for every single service we offer. My short experience of working for large tour operating companies resulted in the concept of customized travel and private tours, most of which I ran myself at the early stage. «Private tours» does not necessarily mean tours for individuals. Groups may be of any comfortable size. This is rather a philosophical approach: to guarantee the best value and provide personalized service to each customer. Volume is not our mission, quality is.
Travel is not just my work, but my hobby and passion.
Happy travels and l look forward to seeing you in Russia and the Baltics soon!
