Skift Forum Europe Preview: Tour Operators Need to Make Travel Matter

Premium travel has become especially appealing to travelers who have spent the past couple of years stuck at home. Multi-day tours offer a chance for consumers to make new social connections while exploring destinations in a way that removes the complexity of handling pandemic-related rules and restrictions.

All those reasons are why Ulla Hefel Böhler is in a great mood. Böhler is CEO of premium guided tour providers Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold, part of the TTC (The Travel Corporation) group. She predicts a banner year ahead for her brands and the sector.

Böhler discussed what’s on her mind as she leads her brands into a recovery — including new programs that cater to rising consumer interest in experiential and sustainable travel — in this interview ahead of her appearance on-stage at Skift Forum Europe. 

Skift Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Skift: How was 2021 for your brands and what’s your outlook for this year?

Ulla Hefel Böhler: Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold have successfully operated several hundred trips last year, and we are anticipating even more pent-up demand for international travel, especially to Europe, this year.

In regards to booking trends, we have adjusted our cycle to be more fluid where guests can book their trips two years in advance or book travel within a few weeks of departure.

As Covid-19 restrictions are lifting and international destinations are welcoming back travelers, we need to be very agile with our marketing strategy and ready to adjust our campaigns because the demand for travel will move very dynamically in the coming months.

Skift: How has the premium and luxury segment changed?

Böhler: With our research and guest feedback, we hear that consumers are wanting more immersive and unique experiences and they are booking longer and multiple trips.

Travelers are starved for experiences. So we’ve added inclusions throughout our journeys, and now offer more choice than any other land operator.

For example, on our British Royale journey, guests will enjoy experiences in York and will journey to the elegant stately home Castle Howard, one of Britain’s finest historic houses. They can choose to join a guided tour of the house and admire its intricate architecture. Alternatively, guests can join one of the gardeners and explore the best parts of the landscaped gardens.

Skift: How has the pandemic changed how you operate?

Böhler: We implemented new well-being protocols and hygiene standards after working closely with the WTTC [World Travel & Tourism Council] and WHO [World Health Organization] to develop global protocols.

Both Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold have added a specially trained and dedicated ‘well-being director’ to their 2022 trips. This person will support the travel director and professionally trained driver and remain up-to-date on local health guidelines while ensuring all hygienic and physical distancing measures are implemented every step of the way.

New for 2022, all of our Luxury Gold journeys will be small groups, with an average of 20 guests.

Insight Vacations enables guests to choose their group size, with never more than 40 guests. We also offer optional “private bubble” groups, with no more than 24 guests. Some regional Insight tours run in new, intimate Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans.

Skift: What are some of your other programming innovations?

Böhler: We’re expanding our distinctive Wander Women series of journeys, created for women, by women. One trip this year, for instance, will introduce guests to inspiring women in beautiful communities across Croatia.

Skift: Your parent company, The Travel Corporation, has for more than 15 years had a commitment to sustainability. But the brands you lead recently introduced Make Travel Matter experiences. Tell us more.

Böhler: There is now at least one Make Travel Matter experience on all of our itineraries beginning in 2022, with 73 unique ones across 124 itineraries in 17 countries.

An example will help explain. Insight Vacations will run a Country Roads of Andalucía and Best of Spain and Portugal tours with stops in Seville, where guests will enjoy a bespoke experience at the Cristina Heeren Foundation. The foundation aims to promote the teaching and conservation of flamenco and is a beneficiary of several of TTC’s TreadRight Foundation scholarships, which were offered to deserving students at the school.

Our guests meet the students of the foundation, learn some basic flamenco steps, and then feel the passion as they perform an emotional show. Insight Vacations has always included a flamenco performance in Seville but becoming a part of it in this up close and personal way takes the guest experience to a whole new level whilst helping to keep this amazing tradition alive.

A wonderful example of how travel can be a force for good.

More formally, Insight’s Make Travel Matter experiences aim to advance 11 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals [UNSDG] which positively impact the communities they visit. These experiences connect guests with people, the planet, and wildlife.

Skift: During the recovery from the pandemic, many travel companies may not want to hear about sustainability. They might see sustainability as either an offering for a niche, small customer segment, or too costly. Besides wanting to do the right thing, why have the Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold brands decided to offer Make Travel Matter Experiences?

Böhler: Travel is a great privilege. We’re all well aware with the return of travel, it needs to come back better than it was before, ensuring a more sustainable future.

We need to build a travel culture that is supporting local communities, is environmentally conscious, and is protective of the wildlife in their natural habitats. Otherwise, we won’t have a world worth traveling in.