LAS VEGAS - Motorcoach operators that don't have much of a group tour-planning department can try a new approach to get the job done.

Compass Tours of Las Vegas is offering a training and planning package that provides operators with full-service tour planning for a fraction of the cost of what they probably would spend on their own.

"We like to tell them to consider us their tour planning department, but off site," says company president Rodney Hill, a tour operator in the Pacific Northwest and West for more than 20 years.

Hill, who operates Americana Tours in Las Vegas, and Marcus Tucker, who operates Custom Tours in Pasco, Wash., began working on the concept about four years ago and are in the beginning stages of marketing it to motorcoach operators in the United States and Canada.

Actually, it's the second launch of the service.

The first effort earlier in the year failed to attract much attention because the program was tough to explain to operators. "They all had the preconceived notion we just sold tours, and we don't," said Hill. "It was very difficult to get them to understand what we do so we had to go back to the drawing board."

For their second try, they developed a detailed "member perspective" that outlines the program and how operators will benefit by being a part of it. "Once they find out what we're all about, then that generates some excitement," said Hill.

He said while the company plans to market the program to all motorcoach operators, it has identified 82 gateway cities in the U.S. and Canada and wants to have one carrier signed on in at least 30 of them before actually beginning the service.

The concept involves individual operators putting together their own local tours of less than five days, and Compass setting up their longer and more elaborate tours.

"The operators know their own areas and their own customers and can best plan their short, local tours," said Hill.

Compass then arranges the major tours - those it recommends and those requested by member operators. It maps the routes, books the hotels, restaurants and attractions and arranges side trips. It will then turn the packages over to the operators to market to their own customers.

Hill said the company will put together trips two years in advance, which will allow operators to plan their businesses better because they will know where they will be traveling down the road.

At the same time, Compass puts together fly trips as well, getting people to those 82 gateway cities from anywhere in the United States and Canada where they would take bus tours run by the member company in each of those cities.

To get started, operators pay $1,835 for a 30-lesson training class that they take via the Internet. The lessons cover all facets of the tour industry -- from setting up short tours to selling and operating both short and multi-day tours.

And, that's all they pay. There is no membership fee, no annual fee and no additional cost for the tour planning. Compass makes its money through commissions it gets from the hotels, restaurants and attractions it books for the tours.

"That way the operators get 100 percent of the profit from each of their tours," Hill emphasizes. "And, they will have much more time to run their businesses without having to worry about tour planning."

He said the need for such a service is emphasized by the changing tour market, especially serving baby boomers who want to go on active trips and are not content with sitting in a bus and just looking out the window.

"A lot of motorcoach companies just don't have the experience for this market," says Hill, adding that Compass' action trips include stopovers for jet skiing, hiking and snowmobiling.

Hill said he got the idea for the service when he began seeing that many motorcoach operators were spending too much time working on multi-day tours and not enough time on local tours. "I kept thinking there should be a business like this so that community-based operators would have more time to do what they do best, serve their local customers and provide them with good service," he said.

He sees Compass as a bargain for operators. "Research and planning long trips is expensive and I think we can plan them at less cost than they would be able to do on their own," he said.

More information can be found at www.compassmembership.com.