Chimu Adventures will ramp up its focus on the top end of the adventure travel market, with the launch of its first dedicated Latin America luxury brochure.
According to director Greg Carter, the new program will be the first Latin America-specific luxury range to be released in Australia. The brochure, just going to press, will become available within the next two months.
The decision to launch the new program comes on the back of "massively" growing demand for upscale holidays, Carter told Travel Today at the launch of the Amazonia Peru exhibition at Sydney's Instituto Cervantes.
"Maybe we've matured more as a company, or maybe people are a lot more aware of what product is around," he said. "Once upon a time, people through Latin America product was all a bit middle of the road. They didn't realise there is some really high end product out there."
However, Carter stressed the firm remains committed to its budget roots, despite the new luxury push.
"We started off as a backpacker brand eight years ago and we're mainly a tailormade company now," he admitted. "But we do tailormade for people on backpacker budgets and for people on five-star budgets. We don't discriminate."
Meanwhile, Peru remains Chimu's number one destination with the firm sending around two and a half thousand travellers to the country each year.
Carter highlighted the firm's emphasis on eco-tourism and finding the right partners as a major selling point, warning there are "a lot of cowboys out there".
Although he conceded consumers were a lot more aware, he insisted the trade plays a "key role" in guiding consumers in their choices.
Once a 100% direct operator, Chimu has substantially grown the level of business done through the trade and is looking to grow that further through regular events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and twice yearly famils.
"In the last few years a lot of traditional wholesalers have been moving to a direct model, and a lot of travel agents got annoyed with that so we organically got a lot of them coming to us," he said. "Now we're moving towards about 70% direct and 30% trade while everyone else is going the other way."
