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.
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