Growing tour company in Northwest Arizona with 5-star reviews and our unique ancestral twist.
Desert Wonder Tours, a company founded in 2017, is a small, tour company that originate from four (4) cities within a 100-mile range of the home location of Kingman, Arizona to popular destinations. Located in Northwestern Mohave County puts gives convenient access to the Tristate area that includes Nevada, California and Arizona, with three large tourist cities of Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Tours are packaged to include transportation, entry fees, guides that provide historical and other information along the route as well as at the destination, water and with some tours, lunch.
Our team is the founder/Owner, Robert Walton, who is native to Mohave County which is where most Desert Wonder tours are located. Robert has a long family lineage in Mohave County dating back to mid-1800’s. Most tours include a Mohave County historical museum and Route 66 themed museum visit. Robert has a background in marketing, sales and management which has strongly attributed to the success of his company.
Robert’s life partner, Kris Haynes, helps to operate the business primarily by writing blogs, social media, responding to reviews and helping with day-to-day details. Kris is a skilled writer with a good understanding of what attracts, and interests' readers and potential guests.
Sharon Nott, a family friend and former HR manager, balances the bank accounts, is a fill-in Driver/Guide, and attends local functions and events, both with and without Robert or Kris to represent Desert Wonder Tours.
Other team members include our Driver/Guides, who are Independent Contractors trained by Robert and Sharon and via an Orientation provided by Kris.
The primary problem for Desert Wonder Tours is insufficient working capital. The company started without capital, using personal funds of both Robert and Kris. There were no significant savings to draw from, so the company’s growth is purely organic and the result of skill sets, dedication and unwavering determination. Desert Wonder Tours has grown each year despite having no initial capital investment, as well as the extreme setbacks caused by the Pandemic shutdowns, international border shutdowns, intranational transportation shutdowns/declines, and continuing problems with flight schedules and other indirect barriers caused by the Pandemic shutdowns.
These factors reveal a resilient market.
The market is about $146,000,000 in Mohave County, Arizona.
Robert Walton continuously finds ways to work around the problem of not having working capital and keeping the business going forward. One example that shows a thinking-outside-the-box solution for the Pandemic shutdown. For a period of about 4 months when all casinos, transportation and tour destinations were off limits, Robert contracted as a courier service to transport COVID-19 test swabs and other specimens from medical clinics and testing sites in Kingman to a Laboratory in Phoenix. This enabled the company to stay afloat as well as supplying the community with a valuable service at a uniquely stressful period.
Desert Wonder Tours sets tour experience pricing based on what expenses are incurred for the tour including fuel costs, entry fees, wear and tear on vehicles, Contractor pay, miscellaneous costs such as cleaning of vehicles, guest water bottles, safety equipment and commercial insurance. Additionally, we keep our pricing competitive with the other tour company in the area.
Desert Wonder Tours makes money by providing excellent quality of service to our customers at a competitive market price. We act to keep costs down where possible, pay a good wage to our Contractors, and fulfill a market desire for unique destination tours.
