About Chris Torres

I am a self-taught professional who defied the naysayers, including a guidance teacher who once believed I wasn’t cut out for computer work due to my modest math skills. Rejecting conventional paths, I left school at 16 (32 years ago!), bypassed college and university, and instead opted for real-world, hands-on learning experiences.

My talent for artwork led me to my first job, illustrating for children’s educational books. Over time, my career path transitioned to the position of artworker then onto reputable design companies where I enhanced my skills in design and marketing.

Around 16 years ago, while practically running an agency for someone else, I questioned why I wasn’t investing my expertise in my own venture. This epiphany led to the creation of my agency, Dojo Design Studio, alongside my then business partner. We catered to a broad range of businesses, providing design and marketing solutions, but the lack of focus eventually made the business less rewarding.

We created the agency in February 2008. Soon after we started I moved home, my wife was expecting our first child and the financial crash happened! “What the hell did we just do?!?”, we thought to ourselves. But we came through it, learning a lot in that first year.

After parting ways with my business partner a few years later, and losing a legal dispute with a similarly-named company (I can share this story in person!), we chose to rebrand. Recognising te substantial client base we had within the tourism sector, we decided to niche down and focus exclusively on tours and activities. This strategic shift transformed our agency, allowing us to concentrate our marketing and sales efforts, resulting in a significant rise in our reputation and client base.

One of our pivotal successes was securing Gray Line, one of the world’s largest sightseeing companies, as our client. Since then, over 90% of our client base is international, operating outside our UK base.

We also became well known for creating high level, bespoke websites for tour operators, specifically using the TourCMS booking platform, but I could see where web was going. It was becoming harder and harder to charge thousands of pounds for a website when low cost templates were becoming increasingly better. Even some booking platforms provided websites for free! With this in mind, I sold the web arm of my business to TourCMS, who also took complete control of the Gray Line account.

This allowed us to focus more on marketing, but still providing websites to our client base, but only using pre-designed templates. This allowed us to grow even quicker as we could take on more clients as deploying websites and marketing startegies was much quicker.

Fast forward a few years, and despite the global pandemic’s challenges, we managed to double our team size and even thrive in the tourism sector during these difficult times. And remember, the tourism sector was one of the worst affected during this 2 year period.

Our resilience during the crisis and the free aid we extended to our clients earned us their trust and loyalty, showing that we are more than just a profit-oriented agency. Today, our rebranded venture, the Tourism Marketing Agency, a fully remote team, is stronger than ever.

With a wealth of experiences, from significant wins to challenging lows, I am eager to guide you in navigating the complex journey of growing your own agency. Let me lend you a hand in building your own success story, teaching you from my own journey and paving the way for your triumphant path.