Collette will ‘elevate’ its Small Group Explorations for Australian advisors by offering a fully refundable trip for just $150 per night, while clients on Small Group tours will get free chauffeur-driven transportation to and from the airport.
The two initiatives were revealed to Travel Weekly last week ahead of the announcement today (Monday 2 March) by Collette president and CEO Jaclyn Leibl-Cote and local MD Karen Deveson over lunch at The Fullerton.
From today, any Small Group Explorations booked with Collette includes a complimentary private chauffeur-drove car to and from home, within 50km of major airports. The service is automatically bundled into the fare.
“It’s just that whole elevating service that we’re offering the traveller we’re letting them start their holiday from the day they walk out the front door,” Deveson says.
Adds Leibl-Cote: “Listening closely to the voice of our traveller is central to how we think, plan, and move forward – it’s what informs our decisions and shapes the more personal, immersive experiences we’re building for the future,”
In addition, the trade-focused Earn, Learn, Elevate program will reward agents who complete Collette University training with $150-a-night exploration rates – refunded after selling 10 passengers on future trips.
For Deveson, the initiative reinforces Collette’s longstanding trade-centric philosophy – and reflects the belief that education drives premium sales.
“It’s called Earn, Learn, Elevate, but from an education point of view, we have modules that we want our agents to do, to learn what makes us different in small groups,” Deveson says. “We’re really trying to get them to learn firsthand because we think it’s the best way to be fully informed.”
Do small group tours deliver?
While small group tours are now on everyone’s lips, Leibl-Cote said Collette has been refining small groups since 2008, and now has dozens of explorations itineraries.
At the heart of the discussion was a question increasingly dominating the touring sector: does small group travel deliver a deeper, more intensive experience?
“We intentionally stay away from cookie cutter, staged experiences,” Leibl-Cote says. “They’re just not authentic. It’s not what people are looking for, at least for our travellers.”
For Leibl-Cote, small group touring isn’t a trend Collette is chasing – it’s a discipline the company has been refining since 2008. Nearly two decades on Australian travellers are increasingly opting for the more intimate format over classic departures.
“It’s not new to us. We’ve been doing it for 18 years,” she says.
While much of the market is now loudly promoting reduced numbers, Leibl-Cote argues that true small group touring requires more than simply capping passenger counts. Many competitors, she suggests, run the same itinerary in both large and small formats. Collette does not.
The design brief is different from the outset. Exploration tours are curated specifically for smaller numbers, with different inclusions, pacing and access points.
Authenticity, in Collette’s view, means facilitating access travellers simply cannot organise independently – whether that’s meeting a Holocaust survivor or engaging in nuanced cultural discussions that may even be controversial.
“I think in travel, you do [have a responsibility to tell those stories],” she says. “I think if it’s for the right traveller.”
Leibl-Cote is realistic that not every client wants to confront difficult histories or social complexities. But for the Collette guest, she believes those moments often become the most powerful.
“You actually hear the opposite of ‘gosh, that was so impactful. It was so moving. It changed my perspective’, whatever it might be. So, I would say it has a positive impact, but it’s not what you’re going to lead with from a marketing standpoint.”
The Australian difference
If there’s one market characteristic that stands out to both executives, it’s the way Australians travel longer – and often creatively.
Back-to-back bookings are common, with some clients linking multiple itineraries into extended European sojourns. Deveson recounts travellers flying out weeks before a tour begins, travelling independently, then joining consecutive Collette departures. One couple even booked seven back-to-backs.
The appetite for small group explorations is particularly strong locally, with booking ratios skewing higher than in North America.
“The numbers out of Australia are higher to small group explorations,” Leibl-Cote says. “They’re booking more of the small group versus the classic product, and we’re leading with small group explorations.”
While some travellers occasionally express a desire for even smaller groups, Leibl-Cote points to the inevitable pricing tension.
“If it’s smaller, the premium of the pricing will go up. What’s your threshold at that point?”
For now, she believes the balance is right – but hints that over the next decade, further segmentation may emerge as retiring generations seek concierge-style support in more complex destinations.
Solo and multi-generational growth
Solo travel is also on steady rise and importantly, they are true solo travellers not just guests paired with strangers to avoid supplements.
“It’s about 20 per cent of our bookings,” Deveson says.
Both Deveson and Leibl-Cote also dismisses outdated stereotypes about solo demographics. Increasingly, they include partnered travellers pursuing individual interests.
Leibl-Cote recounts three solo women on a recent Spain and Portugal exploration – one of whom had a husband at home in Michigan who simply didn’t enjoy travel.
“It’s the independence, the comfort level,” she says.
In contrast, multi-generational travel also remains strong, particularly during Northern Hemisphere summer, with grandparents often funding milestone trips to destinations such as Costa Rica.
Risk, responsibility and relevance
Operating globally also requires robust crisis infrastructure – a point underscored by recent geopolitical volatility and natural disasters.
Collette maintains a 24-hour crisis management team and, critically, controls its own tour design and brand standards rather than outsourcing entirely to DMCs (destination management companies).
“Should a crisis arise, I don’t want to have to go through a third party that’s also dealing with 20 or 30 or 50 other companies around the world,” Leibl-Cote says.
That control, she says, allowed Collette to move travellers across borders within 48 hours during sudden unrest in the Middle East.
It’s part of a broader commitment to remain “100 per cent invested in guided touring”.
“I don’t own cruise companies or river cruise nor boats, busses or hotels – we intentionally stay in the guided touring space. So, I want to make sure that our team stays relevant.”
Relevance, she insists, comes from feedback – whether from travellers, tour managers or trade partners.
“Feedback is a gift,” she says. “Feedback is what is going to make keep you sharp. It’s gonna keep you relevant.”
Looking ahead
As lunch plates are cleared and the Sydney skyline glints beyond the windows, one theme remains constant: evolution without abandoning core identity.
Small group touring may be trending, but for Collette it’s a long game built on design discipline, crisis capability, cultural immersion and trade partnership.
Portugal may be booming. Iceland, Ireland and Italy remain perennial favourites. Southeast Asia beckons for Leibl-Cote personally.
But the company’s strategic direction is clear – deeper experiences, elevated service and sharper education.
And if the chauffeur is waiting at the front door, Australians may be more than ready to climb aboard.
