Starting a company is one thing. But as any successful business owner will tell you, achieving long-term, steady growth is another thing entirely. Steven Garcia, founder and CEO of Empire Tours and Productions, has seen his company grow steadily since its inception. The company has taken dedication and strategic expertise to reach its current success, but for Steven, this is only the beginning.
Empire Tours began with a combination of Steven’s passion for history and experience in hospitality. “I’ve worked in hospitality since I was like 12 years old,” Steven says. “And then I bartended my way through college on Bourbon Street. I always loved history and graduated college in 2008 with a history degree.”
When Steven and his wife moved to Taiwan so his wife could teach English, he had a chance to meet with two members of The American Club, a prominent social club. That led to Steven giving his first real tour, and the business grew from there.
Empire Tours started with walking tours of Taipei and all-inclusive tours for Westerners living in Hong Kong. “They would fly in Friday evening from Hong Kong. I put them on the fastest train in the world, and they would be in the rain forest on a tropical beach by nine o’clock at night. On Saturday they would have river tracing with the Aboriginal people in Taiwan. The Aboriginal kids would wear traditional dress every night and do dances and songs. They would roast Aboriginal food like boar and then go fishing off the reef on Sunday. And then by Sunday night, they’re back in Hong Kong.”
Steven and his wife moved back to America to find quality care for their autistic son, so Steven focused the business on New Orleans tours. The Chinese connections he’d already formed were critical. “They would have these big travel conventions in China, and I would go speak — and I spoke Chinese — and said, ‘Come to New Orleans,’” he says.
Adaptability is the key to longevity, and by changing to accommodate the shifting industry, Steven gave Empire a leg up. Eventually, Steven and his family relocated again to Chicago, and that’s where the next critical step of the trajectory began. “That’s when all the internet companies, like the travel and the home-share companies and my contacts there, were all like, ‘How soon do you open Chicago?’ And they were all hounding me,” he says.
“This is when the business was starting to change to tech. So 90% or 99% of business 10 years ago was from hotel contracts, timeshare contracts, travel agents, and concierges. Now, 99% of business is in internet, travel, and home-share companies. I was there for that. We did the first million for home-share experiences in Chicago.”
A diversity of offerings has also been a key part of the company’s growth. “Chicago Gangsters and Ghosts Tour’s been in the country’s Top 10 USA Today tours. We have Chicago River architecture tours, and now we do food tours as well,” Steven says. “We expanded into New York. Same deal, like food tours, gangster and ghost tours, and city tours. We have a huge log mansion on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. We just did a big expansion into Charleston.”
One of the biggest hurdles for Empire Tours and Productions was the leap from a national to an international company. Now, Steven has brought Empire Tours to Amsterdam, a city whose pedestrian- and bike-friendly infrastructure is especially suited to the company’s brand of eco-friendly tourism.
Amsterdam is also an ideal destination for history and culture enthusiasts. Visitors can take the company’s Guided Anne Frank City Walking Tour, where they can see Daniel Libeskind’s Holocaust Memorial, Rembrandt’s preserved home museum, and the Anne Frank Statue. And, of course, fans of Empire’s ghost tours will appreciate Amsterdam’s Haunted History and Ghost Walking Tour.
So what’s next? For Steven Garcia, the expansion continues. “We already operate a large tour company in London,” he says.
And fittingly enough, Steven and his family are eyeing a beautiful location to settle down. “We’re building our dream house in the Caribbean,” he says.
