A bold bet during the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed a small party bus service into Victoria’s largest day-tour company.
While many businesses paused during the pandemic, Matt Barnsley took a risk. He expanded his small party bus company, which toured Australia’s wine regions, buying new vehicles and rebranding as Wine Hop and Coastal Tours with a new strategy in mind. The game-changer was his combo tour concept, which bundled two major attractions into a single day trip, offering travelers much more value for their time and dollar. “For many visitors to Australia, that long journey can be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so helping them see as much of the state as they can in a limited time is something that is very appealing,” Matt explains.
The idea has transformed the company into the largest day-tour operator in the state of Victoria, transporting 100,000 people annually along Australia’s southernmost coastline and through its vineyards, as well as into the Blue Mountains in Sydney. Here, Matt shares his most memorable moments, his approach of “feeding the monster” — much more gentle and fruitful than it sounds — and how he leverages his relationship with GetYourGuide and the invaluable data and insights from the platform to drive growth.
How did Wine Hop and Coastal Tours take off?
“Before Covid, I had a smaller business, but I decided to take a risk during the downtime and launched Wine Hop and Coastal Tours during the recovery period after the pandemic. I bought new buses and took out loans, not knowing how long the situation would last. My aim was to be the first to market when travel returned, and I knew that identifying key partners like GetYourGuide would be key to that. We put strategies in place together — lots of video calls with my account manager, learning about algorithms — and now we move around 100,000 people a year on our tours. I believe we’re the largest day-tour company in Victoria, and we’ve recently expanded into Sydney. The plan is to become a national company in the next few years.”
What are your most popular tours?
“Our Great Ocean Road tour was our first, and remains among the most popular in Victoria. It’s a full-day experience, about 12 to 13 hours, and it’s packed with stunning natural scenery, including the Twelve Apostles. It’s perfect for someone who has a full day and wants to see that iconic coastline. Our Puffing Billy and Phillip Island combo tour is a close second. Families love that one, and it gives you two of Victoria’s most famous attractions in a single day.”
Your combo tours play a significant role in your success. What was the thinking behind that?
“A key factor for us is combining two major attractions into one day, like our Puffing Billy and Phillip Island tour. It provides better value and saves customers the time and cost of an extra trip out of the city. Australia is a long way for people to travel, no matter which country you fly in from, so seeing more in less time and at a good price has been a big part of our success. The idea for combo tours actually came up in a brainstorm with my GetYourGuide account manager. It was a piece of advice that worked extremely well, and now we’re seen as a bit of a leader in that space.”
How central was your partnership with GetYourGuide in your growth strategy?
“Pretty major. Around 95 percent of our external bookings are through OTAs, with the most volume from GetYourGuide. When we expanded to Sydney, we gave GetYourGuide a three-week exclusive on our new Blue Mountains tour. They filled our first bus on the very first day. It’s been a joint effort. Our account manager, Jacob, was instrumental in providing data and identifying areas with high bounce rates where demand clearly exceeded supply. Even more buses followed thanks to that collaboration, and we’re now market leaders in the Blue Mountains.”
What gave you so much confidence to give an exclusive?
“We were getting the most volume from the platform. We felt our models aligned well, and it was always a smooth integration with our systems.”
How else do you use the information from GetYourGuide to improve your business?
“The analytics are easy to access and give us what we need. We’re a volume business, so the first thing I check is our growth in passenger numbers compared to the same time last year. I also receive monthly snapshots of our performance from GetYourGuide, which helps us pinpoint opportunities and is something other OTAs don’t do. Unlike the risks it took to launch, it means we have solid evidence to base decisions on. Back to the Blue Mountains — we were selling out our four buses two weeks in advance, so we bought a fifth. You don’t buy a 200,000 AUD (133,000 USD) bus on a whim, but the data justified it.”
How do you ensure that your guides consistently deliver a 5-star experience and keep demand high?
“Reviews matter, both for the guest experience and for the algorithms. We actively ask our drivers to encourage guests to leave them. We check our review stats monthly and can track any negative feedback directly to a specific tour and driver to address any issues. It’s also really helpful when our guides are mentioned by name in a 5-star review, as it shows the personal impact they had. We train our guides to earn that mention.”
What’s your top advice for other tour operators looking to grow their business with GetYourGuide?
“Maximize your availability. Before you add new products, fully invest in your core ones. You have to feed the monster. If the platform is producing volume, we invest more in that tour. Don’t spread yourself too thin. For example, in Sydney, all five of our buses run the same Blue Mountains tour. We’ll only add new products once we’ve completely exhausted the capacity on that one.”
With 100,000 guests annually, you must have some interesting stories?
“And traumatic ones! We had a family on our Puffing Billy tour, where guests make a one-way trip on the famous steam train, which makes a quick 5-minute stop. We know people will want to get off and take photos, so we make it clear that it is a very brief stop and the train will soon continue. So when a couple got off and went across the road for a better shot, it was nothing unusual, but clearly an issue when they missed the train’s departure and were left at the remote station. The next thing, a local tradie that the couple had found called to tell me what had happened, and that the couple’s 12-year-old son had been left on board. We went into damage control, contacted the train staff, and located the child. We had him kept safe at the next station until we could get his parents on the next train to reunite them. Hundreds of thousands of people on one of our most popular tours, and it’s only happened once, but it’s a good lesson: always listen to your guide … and maybe take your child with you if you get off the train.”
Key takeaways
- Create high-value tours. A key to Wine Hop and Coastal Tours’ success has been bundling two major attractions into a single day trip, which offers travelers better value and saves them precious vacation time.
- Feed the monster. Matt’s core philosophy is to maximize availability on his most popular tours before launching new ones. By focusing investment on what’s already working, he ensures strong performance and a solid base on which to grow new ideas.
- Use data to drive decisions. Matt uses his own and GetYourGuide analytics to identify opportunities, ensuring that any actions are backed by data. This provides confidence to expand into new cities and invest in new vehicles where there is proven demand.
- Actively ask for reviews. Matt trains his guides to encourage reviews from every guest, knowing that a high volume of positive reviews is essential for building customer trust and performing well in algorithms.
- See results through strategy. Wine Hop and Coastal Tours’ revenue on GetYourGuide has skyrocketed from four digits in 2021 to seven in 2025, and maintains an upward trajectory.
