When you’ve been in the travel business for more than a century, it’s a fair bet you know what works, what doesn’t and what the future might hold.
Collette has been doing travel since 1918 and currently offers more than 170 tours to all seven continents. They are one of the world’s longest-running tour operators and a global leader in small group travel.
The success of this particular travel style has led the company to just release 10 exciting new options for 2026.
New “classic” and “spotlight” tours have also been added to the portfolio bringing the total number of new tours to 20.
“There’s definitely a lot of investment in that small group space, which we call Explorations,” says Managing Director Karen Deveson as she chats to Traveltalk about the new releases.
“We look at what Australians love and what they don’t love. What a small group allows them to do is the North Star in our business planning.
“It’s not so much the size of the group that is their absolute love. It’s what the group size enables them to do, from the type of restaurant they visit or home cooking experiences they can try, the types of accommodation that they can stay in and just getting close to those unique local experiences.
“We are so clear in Australia that that’s the future.”
While Collette has been industry leaders in many areas, they’re also keen to break down what Karen calls some of the “stereotypical cliches” surrounding group touring.
“You won’t see us having pictures of coaches in our advertising. We are a guided journey business. We love touring, but it’s not linked to a particular form of transport.
“So there’s cruise, there’s house boats, there’s four-wheel drives and there’s obviously your more traditional coach.
“It’s the slower pace. It’s staying in places for two to three nights. They’re all the changes that we are making to hopefully start to get the message across that we really are evolving touring.
“We’re committed to that category, but it is the evolution of what it means today versus perhaps what it meant 10 years ago.”
Part of that evolution is the company’s credo – ‘By travellers, for travellers’ – which speaks to the fact Collette don’t use DMC’s when planning their itineraries.
“We employ people within each destination to design the best itineraries and holiday experiences in their home territory.
“So if you’re going to Tuscany, you know your holiday will be designed by someone who calls that area home. That makes a huge difference and I think it’s a game changer for us on so many levels.
“It’s a horrible expression, but it means those employees have “skin in the game”. They have to care about what the experience is that they recommend to our travellers.”
There’s little doubt that small group touring is one of the big growth areas in travel at the moment. While more and more Americans and Canadians are starting to enjoy this form of travel, Karen believes Australia is ahead of the world in embracing the concept.
“Post what we went through in,”2020/2021, I think there is an attraction to getting closer into communities to really have that human connection, face to face, understanding the way people live.
“It’s the small group that allows you to knock on a door of a home in whatever town and say, ‘Hey, can I just come into your world and you tell me what it’s like to live in this village’
“I think there’s an authenticity to that and there’s a group of people who don’t want to stay in hotels that have big brand names. They want to stay in these unique properties.”
Karen describes Collette as “totally agent-centric”, highlighted by the number of BDM’s and national partnership managers the company employs, backed up by an Australian-based call centre.
“Some people would view us as old fashioned in that we’re investing in people on the road, but our agents, they love it. That’s what agents want. They’re wanting the support, the knowledge, so they are really important to us.”
I ask Karen which of the 10 new tours she’s most excited about and the 24-day Cape Town to Cairo and the Journey Through Northern Vietnam are both high up on the wish list.
Having never done a Collette tour, I’m keen to know what she hopes travellers will take away with them.
“I want someone to finish a holiday with us feel like they were traveling with someone who was a friend that was from that destination. It was a balance of fun, a balance of learning and that it was a richer experience.”
So how do Collette keep things fresh after more than 100 years?
“They just stay true to their core. They don’t want to be a whole host of other types of travel. It’s that touring experience, it’s privately owned, they’ve got a very clear path of what Collette is.
“I also think it’s the innovation of technology, product design and all of those things that come along the way. They’re committed to staying fresh.”
Collette’s 2026 New Season Sale offers generous savings of up to $1,500 per couple off new bookings made between now and October 9 for travel between January 1 –December 31, 2026.
