Tour operator Explore Worldwide will establish a direct presence in Australia for the first time in January, as it steps up its commitment to the Australian travel market.
Until now, UK-based Explore has been sold in Australia through various GSA arrangements, most recently with Adventure World, but through its first office down under the soft adventure expert says it aims to fully realise its growth ambitions in the region.
In a one-on-one with Karryon, Explore managing director Michael Edwards said there were “two or three key reasons” why Explore was making the move down under now.
The first relates to the expected growth and “strength in our sector”, especially with new people coming into the sector from the mass travel market and “people wanting to do more sort of sustainable or experiential travel”.
After a lengthy stint at the helm of marketing for Intrepid, Edwards also saw the strength of having “somebody lead a region and giving them autonomy and resources and investment to do that”.
“I think the third key reason is, coming out of the pandemic you get a really good chance to look at your business and what’s working and what isn’t … and we’ve looked at all facets of our business and we’re in absolute growth mode in the UK, where we’re really putting the foot on the pedal in terms of getting Explore really growing … and we think the same is possible out of Australia,” Edwards told Karryon.
“A trade guy”
Leading its Australian operations, sales and marketing will be Aussie Ben Ittensohn, who will return to Brisbane as Regional Director for Australia and New Zealand.
Edwards said Ittensohn was “absolutely the best person to lead our business down there” after around four years of working with the company in the UK.
“He’s a trade guy,” the Explore boss said.
“He was our sales director in the UK, but he was also responsible for all of our trade partnerships and the BDMs.
“Ben knows and loves the trade. He’s a product of the b2b environment. So we thought, who better to lead the business than somebody that just really gets and appreciates the trade, and has a lot of those relationships already in Australia?”
Partnership with ETC
Ittensohn has appointed Evolution Travel Collective (ETC) to provide on-location training and support to travel advisors across Australia.
“There is no one better in terms of being passionate and understanding the trade [than ETC], so we thought, what a great partnership – the combination of us as a brand and then partnering with Ingrid [Berthelsen, MD] and Pete [Rawley, CEO and founder] – because I think they’ll give us a real head-start in terms of some of those trade relations,” Edwards remarked.
With Explore “tailormade for trade in terms of product knowledge and destinations”, Edwards added that there would be plenty of incentives, famils and training.
“We’re not dipping our toe in the water. We want to grow and we want to grow pretty quickly,” he said.
“We will give trade whatever they need to be confident in being able to book Explore – and we see them as kind of the cornerstone of building our brand in Australia in a way that perhaps we haven’t done quite so actively in the past.”
Adventure World will continue to service Explore bookings through the transition period, during which time Explore will look to recruit a number of sales consultants for its local team.
For more information on its waking, cycling and other tours, visit www.explore.co.uk.
