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Collette aims for double-digit growth in UK as it revamps small group tours
Collette will relaunch its small group escorted tours in August to try to attract younger clients and help fuel double-digit growth in the UK from next year.
Group sizes on its Explorations tours will be limited to a maximum of 19 passengers, down from 24 now, they will include more off-the-beaten track locations, such as Newfoundland, and more unique experiences, such as a dinner with a family in an Italian vineyard.
Senior vice president of global business Christian Leibl-Cote said the tours would appeal to clients in their forties and fifties, expanding Collette’s market, which – as with other escorted tour specialist – typically consists of older clientele.
"These tours will bring in a younger crowd because younger travellers want to do these things, they want to go on a safari in Kenya or South Africa, they want to travel to the Galapagos.
"We will take them to place you can’t go to with larger groups, to places you’d never know where there without a guide, and give them some extremely unique experiences."
Speaking at a Global Forum to celebrate Collette’s centenary in the US, Leibl-Cote said the revamped Explorations tours will be launched on August 7, although some are already on sale on its new website, explorations.com.
It will offer 25 of the new Explorations tours in 2019 but Leibl-Cote said the programme would be ‘significantly’ expanded in the year.
"They offer great potential for our partners in the UK, we have been talking to them about these tours and we will continue to talk to them as they develop."
Collette has appointed a fourth sales rep in the UK, where the business has been run by head of partnerships Stephen Mills, head of sales Neil Sehmbhy, head of operations Paul Palmer and marketing manager Wendy Missenden since the departures of MD Carl Burrows and head of marketing Michelle Laverick in March.
Leibl-Cote said he was confident the new management structure, with the UK team reporting to global vice presidents based at the US head-quarters, would boost growth.
"We’ve seen double-digit growth with this management structure in the US and Canada but in the UK our growth was only in single digits, so I’m sure this new structure will lead to double-digit growth in the UK next year.
"The team in the UK is now working very closely with the team in the US and we are getting things done."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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