Salt Lake City Day Tours Manager

Southwest Adventure Tours•Salt Lake City, UT

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Southwest Adventure Tours (SWAT) is seeking a Salt Lake City Day Tours Manager to lead their growing day-tour operation. This role involves managing people, vehicles, partnerships, products, and daily decisions to ensure tours are dependable, engaging, and commercially successful. The manager will focus on creating an environment where guides connect with guests, tours depart smoothly, guests feel welcomed and safe, problems are resolved efficiently, and the business achieves healthy financial performance. This is an active, hands-on role, not a desk-bound position, requiring a blend of operations leadership, guide development, business building, and problem-solving.

Requirements

At least three years of leadership experience in tourism, hospitality, outdoor recreation, transportation, field operations, or a similar environment.
Experience managing people, building schedules, coaching performance, and holding team members accountable.
Ability to develop relationships and turn conversations into business opportunities.
Skill in managing logistics and adapting when plans change.
Experience coordinating vehicles, drivers, fleets, transportation, or field-based teams.
Ability to make decisions when needed.
Understanding of the importance of revenue, margins, labor, and details.
Clear communication skills with employees, guests, vendors, partners, and leadership.
Comfort using scheduling software, CRM platforms, fleet-tracking tools, and Google Workspace.
Experience with Samsara or a similar fleet platform, or ability to learn quickly.
Ability to manage multiple tours, guides, vehicles, guest needs, and deadlines simultaneously.
Strong knowledge of Salt Lake City, or willingness to become an expert.
Flexible schedule.
A valid driver’s license and clean driving record.
Ability to meet applicable DOT and company insurance requirements.
CPR and First Aid certification, or willingness to obtain it after hire.
Ability to lift up to 50 pounds.
Ability to work in vehicles, outdoors, and in active field conditions.
Flexibility to work early mornings, evenings, weekends, and occasional holidays during peak periods.
Willingness to guide tours or provide operational coverage when necessary.

Responsibilities

Oversee the daily execution of Salt Lake City day tours, including vehicle checks, guide scheduling, and tour readiness.
Coordinate multiple tours, managing timing, safety, guest needs, and operational details.
Make operational decisions in response to guide call-outs, weather changes, vehicle issues, or immediate support needs.
Ensure vehicles are clean, properly equipped, professionally presented, and ready for operation.
Maintain compliance with company policies, safety procedures, DOT requirements, and insurance standards.
Step in to guide tours when operational needs require it.
Recruit, onboard, train, coach, and evaluate Salt Lake City day-tour guides.
Develop guides to deliver compelling experiences, focusing on professionalism, safety, storytelling, timing, destination knowledge, guest interaction, and vehicle care.
Conduct ride-alongs and field evaluations to ensure quality.
Monitor guest feedback, public reviews, and complaints to identify and fix underlying issues.
Improve tour routes, timing, stops, interpretive content, guest communication, and tour flow.
Ensure a consistent guest experience across all tours and guides.
Build relationships with hotels, concierges, visitor centers, destination organizations, conference planners, event organizers, travel advisors, and tourism partners.
Develop opportunities for SWAT tours within conventions, conferences, group programs, and visitor packages.
Represent SWAT within the Salt Lake City tourism community.
Collaborate with Sales and Marketing on campaigns, sales materials, tour positioning, promotions, and conversion opportunities.
Identify new audiences, partnerships, distribution channels, and reasons for visitors to book tours.
Monitor bookings, revenue, labor, vehicle use, direct costs, utilization, and margins.
Understand tour operating costs and contributions to the business.
Identify inefficiencies and avoidable expenses.
Balance service quality with financial judgment.
Report on performance, challenges, trends, and opportunities.
Help establish targets and work towards achieving them.
Improve existing tours based on feedback, insights, and market demand.
Research and develop new tour concepts, routes, themes, stops, and partnerships.
Evaluate new tour ideas for guest appeal, operational feasibility, competitive value, and profitability.
Keep Salt Lake City tour products fresh, relevant, and recommendable.