Portal4Travel.com

ShoreTrips’ business is booming, so you’d think owners Julie and Barry Karp could relax a bit. The couple developed a great niche arranging land tours for Caribbean cruise ship travelers. While cruise vessels have been disgorging hordes of passengers into ports and onto buses and walking tours for decades, their operators faced increased competition from landlubbers when the Karps founded their firm in 2001.

Since then, the Karps have located tour operators in scores of port cities and used them to deliver less costly and more intimate and original port experiences than the big ships offer. Clients come mostly through travel agents, who get commissions on any ShoreTrips tours they sell. The Karps put 75,000 travelers on their tours in 2006, and 100,000 last year. The firm has expanded into 38 Caribbean ports, Alaska, the Mediterranean, and the Baltic. Revenue hit $7.5 million in 2007 (up from $4.8 million in 2006), most of which went to the 2,400 tour operators with which ShoreTrips works. The Karps netted several hundred thousand dollars.

While other firms offer land excursions for cruisers, the Karps say these rivals aren’t hurting their business. Still, most vacationers on cruises, unaware of -ShoreTrips, opt for tours arranged by their ships. The Karps have approached cruise lines about teaming up but have gotten the cold shoulder. They suspect that’s because land excursions are profitable for the lines, which squeeze tour operators for lower prices than the Karps demand.