Alamo Dealer

Dealer Spotlight

Alamo Segway

Buzz Jellett, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, is the owner of Alamo Segway in San Antonio, Texas. Opened in March 2005, his shop is ideally located across the street from the historic Alamo and next to the city’s popular River Walk. Segway Today interviewed Buzz in October 2007.

What brought you to San Antonio?

I was a college minister at Trinity University for seven years; I graduated from seminary in 1999.

How did you get interested in Segways?

I did a Segway tour in Austin about three years ago and thought it would be a great idea to bring it to San Antonio. San Antonio is a bigger city and we see more conventions. It’s such a blast to get around on a Segway. San Antonio is a multicultural city, so you can see a lot of history from the 1700s and 1800s that is Spanish, and see a lot of modern architecture, too. It’s just a grea

t way to get around a small downtown. And with our River Walk, it’s second to none.

Do you find San Antonio to be a Segway-friendly city?

Yes, it certainly is. San Antonio has about 1.4 million people, so the city has invested a lot of money in the last 20 years in becoming ADA-compliant. Everything has handicap ramps, and the city has put about $10 million into the River Walk to make it handicap accessible, so there are lots of ramps and elevators that go down to the River Walk. All the history between the Alamo, the River Walk, King William, La Villita and El Mercado is within about five or six miles of the other, so the Segway is a great way to get from place to place.

What do you think makes your dealership different from some other Segway dealers?

We are located next to the number 1 tourist attraction in Texas. The Alamo is visited by more than 12.1 million tourists a year. The shop is also across the street fro

m a 1500-room hotel. Our main goal is to sell Segways to companies, the city of San Antonio and others. Ninety percent of our tour customers are tourists, but a few locals are looking at buying.

What are some of the tours you offer?

We offer a downtown historic tour for $49, which lasts 2.5 hours and covers six miles ... so we say we go “Six smiles and an hour.” In fact, our company motto is “Remember the Tour,” after the famous saying “Remember the Alamo.” We also offer a Ghost Tour, a Christmas Lights Tour, an Art and Architecture Tour, and a Segway Scavenger Hunt for families and corporate groups.

Do you offer other programs?

We provide team training for companies such as Dell, AT&T, Washington Mutual, and many more. This has been a very successful venture since many companies want something out of the ordinary.

How do you incorporate Segway into your personal life?

I use one daily in my 5.5-mile commute from home to work, unless it’s raining. I try to show folks that a Segway is a very good way to keep the air clean and get to work. Reducing our carbon footprint is an important goal for all of us. The fun part about leading Segway tours is the variety of people you meet. Some become good friends, some become clients, and some actually want to buy your idea. There’s never a dull day on a Segway. I always tell folks who are stressed out at work to “take two Segways [tours] and call me in the morning.”

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