Our Story
Co-founder Sean Finelli left his Wall Street career behind in 2008 to explore his cultural roots in Italy. It didn’t take long before Sean knew every historical site and cobblestoned street in Rome. He used this passion to start guiding travelers across Rome, which quickly led him to become known as “The Roman Guy.”
In 2012, fellow history buff, language expert (he speaks seven!) and licensed tour guide Brandon Shaw joined the company for the price of a double espresso and many future grey hairs. The new partners united under the common goal of wanting to change the travel experience for consumers by giving them the tools to experience new destinations and cultures via hand-crafted tours and online resources.
The company quickly gained notoriety in Rome, allowing it to grow with the hiring of new team members and expansion into new cities, to now include Florence, Venice, Milan, Paris, London and Barcelona, among others. This is expansion came a new name and identity; in 2019, the company was officially duped The Tour Guy.
Today, The Tour Guy runs owned and partner tours in cities across Europe and is actively expanding into the USA, and employs thousands of guides around the world. The co-founders attribute their success to once being tour guides themselves, giving them unique insight into the pain points of travelers and fellow guides, as well as a deep knowledge and passion for different cultures.
Executive Bios
Sean Finelli
Finelli left his Wall Street career behind in 2008 to explore his cultural roots in Italy. He ended up opening an Italy-focused tour operator. Since then, Finelli has hired over 40 full time employees internationally and his entrepreneurial skills have earned himself spots on the Entrepreneur 360 List Finelli’s commitment to our brand’s development have contributed to his vertical career move from CMO to CEO. Finelli believes that Arnold Schwarzenegger said it best when he said, “while you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there, at the same time is working harder. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that.”
Brandon Shaw
Brandon is a father, entrepreneur, licensed tour guide and a complete history geek. Brandon has always had a serious case of the “I gotta see that!” syndrome. He has lived in Russia, France, Italy, Holland and the USA. A linguist with the ability to speak 8 languages, and with 15 years of experience traveling through Italy, Brandon naturally became the brains that created The Tour Guy’s custom Trip Planning service.
Oh, and did we mention he’s a sommelier?
Brand Resources
Feel free to check out additional brand-related materials and resources that have been curated to help ensure consistency across all communications. You may access our find our comprehensive media guide, brand messaging framework and detailed style guidelines.
Logos, Images, And Assets
The following images, assets, and logos are free to media outlets providing unique coverage of The Tour Guy. Terms are as follows:
Logos
Logos may be used by any media outlet providing reviews, coverage or updates of The Tour Guy.
Image Assets
The Tour Guy is happy to provide free use of the below image assets to any outlet providing “friendly” coverage of our tours, experiences, products, and services.
Images can only be used to communicate information specific to Our Brands and must be attributed to Our Brands with a link to either homepage in the photo credit. i.e. “Photo Thanks to The Tour Guy”.
Photos may be used in the body of a listicle throughout as long as attribution guidelines are met. The link must be a follow link and cannot be “no-follow”. Attribution link is permitted to be an affiliate link.
Images may not be used to sell products on any other web property other than TheTourGuy.com.
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