Intrepid Travel has hailed the success of its premium range of tours and is seeking to add capacity to meet demand.
The operator launched its premium collection in 2021 and said it has seen a steady growth of interest in the last two years, prompting it to increase the number of destinations it visits.
The premium range includes more activities, more meals, transfers and a higher class of accommodation than its traditional tours. Additionally, premium tour guides are required to have a minimum of five years’ experience.
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Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, managing director EMEA Zina Bencheikh said: “We launched with around 70 products around the world and we now have over 100 so we have been scaling this range very fast.
“Our premium Japan trip is almost sold out for the next few months so we’re trying to add dates and work closely with our DMCs to add more capacity in Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Egypt and Jordan, which have all been doing really well.”
Hazel McGuire, UK and Ireland general manager, explained the uptick in demand is coming from a new audience and not from Intrepid’s existing customer base.
“We’ve seen that this is a new audience and, from speaking to our partners, we get the sense they are slightly older. It’s exciting to see that it’s a new customer.
“We’re adding capacity for this year and we’re starting to look into 2024 and beyond to see what additional product we can add into the range and what our tours we can do.”
Bencheikh went on to praise travel agents for their work in recent months, which saw the operator record its best-selling month on record.
“January was the biggest sales month we’ve ever had out of the UK and we continue that trend now. We’ve had record-breaking months from so many of our key partners which has been great.
“Travel agents are just killing it with us and we are really happy.”