Lessons on Keeping a Small Tourism Business Above Water for 40+ Years with Isabelle Cossart | Girlboss

Ever wondered what it’s like to run a travel business? How about running a travel business in the middle of a pandemic that’s halted travel for the better part of a year? 

Just ask Isabelle Cossart, the one-woman show behind Tours by Isabelle—bilingual tours that show off the gumbo mixture of New Orleans culture, landscape, and wildlife to the world.

She’s been running tours in New Orleans for 41 years, after moving from France when she was just 21 years old. Her business has survived many unexpected events, from Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans, to 9/11 which halted travel throughout the USA, and more recently COVID-19, which has affected the entire world. She attributes her success to loving and caring about people, deeply.

Isabelle has, quite literally, turned (Meyer) lemons into lemonade, with the resilience and persistence required to handle the sweet and sour moments of working in travel, just like she’s built her business into what it is today. After inheriting a citrus orchard in Louisiana it sustained her throughout the pandemic—delivering the fruits of her labor to local farms and restaurants in her Corvette.

Going with the counterflow, as per usual, like when she turned the disaster of Hurricane Katrina into an opportunity to educate tourists on her tours about how the aftermath of flooding was a human-caused disaster, not a natural disaster. Feeling like a journalist, reporting the facts, with her sketches of the disaster area featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.

She’s an inspirational, visionary who makes owning a business feel relatable and real. We’re planning our next trip to New Orleans, how about you?

Listen to this episode of Girlboss Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or read the conversation below!

Read the full story and transcription on Girlboss here