Tours By Isabelle

What Tours By Isabelle does

Tours By Isabelle is a privately held, founder-owned small-group tour operator headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, in continuous operation since 1979. The company designs and delivers curated guided experiences covering Louisiana's plantation estates, bayou and airboat excursions, New Orleans orientation driving tours, and private walking tours of the French Quarter and Garden District. Tours are led by historian guides in 14-passenger air-conditioned vans, 6-13 passenger small airboats, or on foot with a maximum group size of 28; a French-language guide option has been offered across the full product line for 45 years.

The business runs on a direct-to-consumer model. Tickets are sold through the company's website integrated with the Peek.com booking platform (which carries a 6% online fee), by phone at (504) 398-0365, via WhatsApp, and through email inquiry, with hotel, B&B, and select Airbnb pickup service across the French Quarter, St. Charles Avenue, and Westbank corridors. Pricing is per-seat for shared tours ($96 city tour, $130 airboat, $159 Whitney & Laura plantations, $179 half-day, $279 full-day plantation tours with lunch) and a flat $450 fee for private walking tours up to 28 guests; a $150 supplement applies for a French-speaking guide, and a 10% military discount is offered.

The product portfolio comprises eight core tour products plus an ancillary sub-brand, Isabelle's Orange Orchard, a chemical-free citrus farm featured in SAVEUR magazine. The company employs 1-10 people, holds no patents, has no external funding, and operates exclusively within Louisiana with explicit geographic exclusions for airport, New Orleans East, Slidell, and North Shore pickup areas. Customer segments are individual tourists, French-speaking international visitors, and cultural heritage enthusiasts, with no enterprise or B2B channel exposure.

Name

Tours By Isabelle

Legal name

Tours By Isabelle

Website

https://toursbyisabelle.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tours By Isabelle is a founder-owned, New Orleans-based tour operator founded in 1979 that runs small-group (max 14) guided plantation, swamp/airboat, city driving, and private walking tours for individual tourists and French-speaking visitors across Louisiana.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Guided Tour Services

NAICS

Tour Operators (56152), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water (48721), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation (487)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Guided Tours & Interpretive Services (Ranger-Led, Naturalist, Cultural Interpretation) (THAAAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wildlife & Nature Interpretation Guides (Birding, Photography, Naturalist) (THAAALAE), Adventure & Expedition Travel Agencies (THAKAFAB)

Keywords

• Small group tours
• Plantation tours
• Swamp airboat tours
• City walking tours
• Guided cultural tours

Headquarters

HQ city

New Orleans

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Tour Ticket Sales: Revenue generated from selling tickets for guided tours of New Orleans and Louisiana attractions including plantations, swamp/airboat tours, and city walking tours. Per-person pricing for most tours with flat fees for private walking tours. Additional revenue from optional lunch inclusions and French-speaking guide supplements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Tours By Isabelle is a New Orleans-based small-group tour operator founded in 1979 that sells guided excursions to plantations, swamps (by airboat), the New Orleans city, and historic walking neighborhoods. The company emphasizes intimate group sizes (capped at 14 for van tours and 28 for walking tours), French-speaking guide options for international visitors, hotel pickup, and bundled admission-and-lunch packages. It also operates Isabelle's Orange Orchard, a small ancillary citrus farm.

Product overview

Tours By Isabelle is a small-group tour company operating since 1979, offering curated guided experiences from New Orleans focused on Louisiana's cultural heritage. The portfolio includes three tour categories: Plantation Experiences (Grand Tour with Airboat, Half Day Tour, Destrehan/Whitney/Houmas with Lunch, Whitney & Laura Plantations), New Orleans Orientation tours (Driving City Tour, Garden District Walking Tour, French Quarter Walking Tour), and Bayou & Airboat Experiences (Airboat Swamp Tour). All tours are conducted in small groups via 14-passenger vans or walking, led by historian-guides, with French-speaking options available. The company also operates Isabelle's Orange Orchard as an ancillary agricultural product. Tours range from half-day to full-day experiences, with pricing from $130-$450 per person or flat fees for private walking tours.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Isabelle's Orange Orchard: A small, family-owned citrus farm in New Orleans, Louisiana. Produces 100% natural citrus fruits including satsumas, tangerines, grapefruits, lemons, oranges, and kumquats. No chemicals, insecticides, herbicides, or fertilizers used. Featured in SAVEUR magazine.

Products and services

• Half Day Plantation & Airboat Tour (Destrehan Plantation & Small Airboat Ride) Small-group (max 14) half-day excursion that bundles a guided Destrehan Plantation visit with a small-airboat swamp ride, including hotel pickup and drop-off in New Orleans. Sold to leisure tourists wanting a combined cultural and nature experience in a single morning or afternoon.
• Grand Tour with Airboat (Full Day - Destrehan, Whitney & Houmas House with Lunch) Full-day small-group tour visiting Destrehan, Whitney, and Houmas House plantations, combined with an airboat swamp ride and an included group lunch. Includes hotel pickup and continuous guide commentary. Targeted at travelers who want the most comprehensive Louisiana plantation-and-swamp day trip from New Orleans.
• Whitney & Laura Plantation Tour (with Lunch) Small-group guided tour of Whitney Plantation and Laura Plantation, two of the most prominent historic sites on the River Road, with an included lunch and hotel pickup. Sold to visitors focused specifically on the history of these two plantations.
• New Orleans City Tour Guided van tour of New Orleans city landmarks with hotel pickup, led by a company historian guide. Designed as an orientation experience for visitors wanting a structured overview of the city in a small group (max 14).
• Garden District Walking Tour Guided walking tour through the historic Garden District of New Orleans, covering architecture, history, and celebrity homes, with a larger cap of up to 28 walkers. Sold to visitors preferring a pedestrian-paced historic-neighborhood experience.
• French Quarter Walking Tour Guided walking tour of the New Orleans French Quarter, covering history, architecture, and cultural landmarks at a pedestrian pace, capped at 28 walkers. Designed for visitors who want an on-foot introduction to the city's oldest neighborhood.
• Airboat Swamp Tour Standalone guided swamp excursion using small airboats (6-13 passenger capacity), with hotel pickup from New Orleans. Sold as a nature-focused alternative for visitors who want the swamp experience without the plantation component.
• French-Speaking Tours French-language versions of the company's standard tour offerings (plantation, swamp, city, walking tours) with continuous interpretation provided by a French-speaking guide. Targeted specifically at Francophone international visitors to New Orleans for whom language access is a deciding factor.
• Isabelle's Orange Orchard Small citrus farm operation associated with founder Isabelle Cossart, producing oranges and related products as an ancillary offering tied to the Tours By Isabelle brand. Represents a modest, non-core product line that diversifies beyond guided tour services.

Quantifiable outcome

• Maximum 14 people per van tour ensures personalized attention and avoids large tourist crowds
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Viator (Tripadvisor): Global online tour/activities aggregator that resells New Orleans tour supply and increasingly captures pre-trip discovery. Comparable as a channel and indirect competitor for booking-flow ownership.
• GetYourGuide: Major global tours and activities marketplace distributing New Orleans tour inventory. Comparable as a broad incumbent in the same end-customer journey, competing for booking share.

Direct peers

• New Orleans City Tours / City Sightseeing New Orleans: Hop-on hop-off and guided city tour operator in New Orleans. Comparable as a direct competitor for the city-tour and French Quarter experience segment, though more mass-market in delivery.
• Gray Line New Orleans: Established New Orleans tour operator offering city, plantation, and swamp tours via small-group and motor-coach formats. Directly comparable in product mix and customer base, though typically operating at larger group sizes than Tours By Isabelle.
• Cajun Encounters Tour Company: Louisiana-based operator running swamp/airboat tours combined with plantation visits along River Road. Directly comparable small-group itinerary structure and overlap on the bayou/plantation combo Tours By Isabelle sells.
• Free Tours by Foot New Orleans: Pay-what-you-wish walking tour operator active in New Orleans covering the French Quarter, Garden District, and Garden District cemetery routes. Direct competitor for the walking-tour and French Quarter/Garden District product categories.
• Airboat Adventures: New Orleans-area airboat swamp tour specialist. Directly comparable on the wildlife/swamp excursion product that is one of Tours By Isabelle's three core categories.
• Louisiana Tour Company: New Orleans-based small-group tour operator offering plantation, swamp, and city tours with similar hotel-pickup service. Directly comparable in target market, group sizing, and product portfolio.

Others

• Peek.com: Booking platform that Tours By Isabelle uses for online reservations and that powers many competing small tour operators. Not a competitor in tours, but a directly comparable operating dependency and distribution channel.

Regional players

• New Orleans Plantation Country: Regional destination-marketing and tour-purchasing consortium representing River Road plantations (including several Tours By Isabelle visits). Comparable as a regional channel and partial competitor for plantation-tour bookings.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/isabellesorchard
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tours-by-isabelle

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tours By Isabelle