Personal touch is key to success

Alicia Robinson

If you’re new to Newport Beach and want to know what to see and do,

ask Carolyn Clark.

After a year and a half as the sales coordinator for the Newport

Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, Clark started her own business

this fall, offering guided tours around Orange County and the Los

Angeles area.

With her business, Newport At Your Feet, Clark gives tours to

families and small groups customized to their interests.

Most of her career has been in tourism, and helping travelers was

what she liked best about her job at the conference and visitors

bureau, she said.

After she and her husband moved to Newport Beach in 1971, she gave

tours to all her nieces and nephews.

“Everyone wants to see Hollywood, but you know what? Newport’s

pretty fascinating,” Clark said.

When clients call to set up a tour, she asks about their interests

to tailor the trip to them.

If they like nature, she’ll take them to the Back Bay. Art lovers?

They’ll go to the Orange County Museum of Art and local galleries.

She gives tourists historical background on the area and suggests

things they can come back and do later.

“If people are staying for more than just a day or two, they

usually want something to do,” said Linda Beach, head concierge at

the Balboa Bay Club.

“We did refer some people to her, and they were quite pleased.”

Clark also puts together foreign tour itineraries for travelers.

She’ll book hotels, order train tickets, make restaurant

reservations and hire tour guides in other countries to make clients’

trips run as smoothly as possible -- and she even tells them to

e-mail her from the road with any questions or changes to the trip.

“She adds such a personal touch to her planning [and] basically

plans it as though she’s doing it for herself,” said Vicki Morris, a

Newport Beach resident who had Clark plan a trip to Switzerland for

her and her husband, Jim, in September.

“She just basically takes the ball and more than runs with it.”

Because planning itineraries is time-intensive, most travel agents

don’t do it anymore, Clark said.

Clark’s still developing her business and plans to create a

website and other promotional materials, and she’d like to tap into

the corporate market.

Companies could use her services to familiarize new employees with

the area or when making a pitch to prospective hires, she said.

“Hopefully by the time I’m finished with them, there wouldn’t be

any doubt this is where they want to be,” she said.

Newport At Your Feet can be reached at (949) 285-7558 or via

e-mail at carolyn@newportatyourfeet.com.