SHREVEPORT, La.
-- When paramedic and former detective Eddie Jellum built his
houseboat last year, he planned to charter it for hunting and
fishing trips.
Jellum got the
idea to build a houseboat at a sportsmans show in March 2004. Eight
months later, construction was complete.
In the meantime,
hed also completed training for a U.S. Coast Guard captains license
and secured $1 million worth of liability insurance. Soon
thereafter, Houseboat Adventures chartered its first hunting
trip.
Through the month
of December and into January, I took the boat up and down the Kane
River giving tours of the Christmas lights, Jellum said. Then I
continued with the duck-hunting trips until the season closed. Then
I started getting calls from women who wanted to charter the boat
for dinner cruises.
I had no idea
what client base would be interested in something like this, he
added. But Ive gotten more calls from women than the typical
hunting and fishing guys.
Why women? In
what turned out to be a lucky accident, Jellums ads for boat
charters ended up in the bed-and-breakfasts section of a tourism
publication, which helped put Houseboat Adventures in the dinner
cruise business.
The companys
dinner cruises cost $50 an hour for up to six people, not including
the price of the food.
Clients can bring
their own meals, order from local restaurants or have Houseboat
Adventures arrange something. In addition, the boat is still
available for hunting and adventure trips.
Shreveport, a five-and-a-half hour drive from New
Orleans, lies in northwest Louisiana, an area Louisiana Tourism
calls Sportsmans Paradise.
Jellum tried
drumming up some business from travel agents in the area but got
little interest. They said all their customers wanted to go
somewhere else, he said.
Far more
enthusiastic, the Shreveport-Bossier Convention & Tourist
Bureau got onboard and assisted Jellum with promotion. The tourist
board saw Houseboat Adventures as a way to draw visitors by
presenting northern Louisiana as an exotic destination.
What I can offer
you will rival the Amazon, Jellum said. I can show you alligators,
all the typical game. We have the swamps, the cyprus bayous and
backwaters. For a lot of people, it would be the adventure of a
lifetime.
Houseboat
Adventures offers agents a choice of net rates or 10% commission.
Call (318) 458-4680 for more information.
To contact
reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].