Escorted tour operator Travelsphere has revealed a target of 20 specially curated tours within 12 months under its new partnership with the Royal Geographical Society.
The Royal Geographical Society Collection, which officially launches at an event today (February 27), currently comprises five itineraries inspired by the organisation’s archives and scientific work.
It comes as Travelsphere hails the trade as its fastest-growing sales channel and announces plans to increase its trade sales team from six to eight alongside dedicated trade marketing materials in the next six months to give more support to agents following the collection’s launch.
Bruce Poon Tip, owner of G Touring brand Travelsphere, said the tours aimed to “bring to life” some of the contents of the Royal Geographical Society’s archives – which contain historical, cultural and physical geography – following an “exciting” partnership of pioneering British brands.
“There are very few brands that do what the Royal Geographical Society does. It’s a perfect match in values. We both believe in travel and exploration as a transformative tool. We can be the stewards of their brand,” he said.
“It’s a dream for us as a travel company to give depth to our travel product and offer experiences of over 200 years of archives. They have archives full of history and destinational knowledge. We want to dust it all off and give greater appreciation of these countries by bringing it all to life. I feel we are coming together to bring something special to travellers.”
For travel agents, the collection offers “differentiated” product to sell. He added: “We are constantly trying to have something special for agents to sell.”
Travelsphere managing director Adam Kemp said the operator had already had positive feedback from the trade and consumers to the new collection.
The operator’s product team is now working on a further two itineraries with the Royal Geographical Society following the initial five itineraries in Italy, Japan, Canada and Latin America. Departures start in April.
The two new tours, to India and Nepal and the ‘five Stans’, the former Soviet republics in central Asia, will launch in April.
Kemp plans to build the collection up substantially. “We want to have a tranche of tours by September and more by the end of the year; I would like to have 20 tours by January 2026,” he said.
The itineraries have been offered by Travelsphere previously but have been enhanced with ‘curated, supplementary content’ for the new collection.
“We are building trips that we believe people want to explore together and utilising the Royal Geographical Society’s content to enhance that,” said Kemp, who said Travelsphere sales were 30% up year on year for the six months to the end of January.
The operator is now looking to recruit a further two staff in its trade team; a business development manager and a key account manager.
The operator has already put together a dedicated brochure of the collection. Clients receive a standalone booklet once they have booked with detailed information on their trip, much of which is sourced from the Royal Geographical Society, giving historical insights and photographs of the destination and sites from its archives. Travelsphere tour leaders have received special training on content from the Royal Geographical Society.
Trips also include community tourism, either in the form of trips to the operator’s Planeterra charity projects or other excursions such as homestays or culinary experiences in the local community. The Royal Geographical Society receives a royalty fee from each tour which goes towards its field trip work.