Travel advisors can look forward to some sizeable commissions with Contiki as Australian holidaymakers trend back towards longer trips, the tour company’s managing director says.
In an interview with Karryon, Contiki MD Adam Armstrong said that while longer, multi-country trips had been the “bread and butter” of the brand, Aussie travellers had been slowly moving towards shorter holidays in the years prior to Covid-19, meaning “two or three weeks rather than four, five, six weeks”.
But post-Covid, Armstrong said Australians have been reversing the trend.
“As soon as Australians and Kiwis were able to get out, they were really skewing again back towards those long trips,” he remarked.
“And I think it’s kind of intuitive when you think about it … they haven’t travelled to Europe for two years; they’ve hopefully got some money, got time, got annual leave accrued. So they’re taking these long 30,40,45-night trips.”
Amid this return to longer trips, the New Zealand-born company unveiled a one-off 60-night trip to celebrate Contiki’s 60th birthday, which departs in April 2023.
“They’re going to do a 60-night extravaganza around Europe, following some of the original Contiki route, which operated back in April 1962. It is kind of a throwback to that route,” he said. Armstrong said forward bookings for the trip were healthy as well.
“So yeah, the trend is for longer trips. I don’t know if it’s going to last. I hope it will … but certainly the Aussies are taking longer trips,” he said.
With some of these trips selling for “$8,000 to $10,000”, Armstrong said “they’re not insignificant opportunities for travel agents to get some tasty commissions on”.
Asia-Pacific rising
While Greece was the “standout performer” among single destinations in 2021 and 2022, Armstong is excited about destinations closer to home for Aussies that are showing promising signs.
Among these is Japan, where Contiki recently returned after multiple false starts. India has also just come back for Contiki, while Armstrong hopes Sri Lanka will return soon as that is “another key destination for us”.
“So Asia is getting back there.”
The Contiki boss also said the company had just had its “best ever New Zealand season” this past winter.
“That’s in, like, 60 years of history,” he explained.
“So as soon as Aussies could get across the ditch, they were booking … and we sold out our entire ski season this year in New Zealand and carried more people on ski trips this year than ever before.
“Now the summer starts, we get back to the traditional North and South Island trips – and they’re selling really well also.” Which means more tasty commissions for travel advisors.
