We chat to Railbookers CEO Frank Marini about the rise and rise of Australian bookings, trending destinations, the emergence of “little luxury” and the company’s return to a major hotspot.
On his annual visit to Australia this week, Railbookers CEO Frank Marini boasts that so far in 2025, the company has seen 165% growth out of Australia for bookings in the following year, compared to the same period in 2024 for this year. But there’s a good chance when Frank returns next year, he’ll point to even more growth.
This optimism stems from the return of Railbookers to the hottest country for Aussie travellers right now.
“We’re going back to Japan!” Marini tells Karryon in an interview in Sydney.
“We’ll launch that later this year for next year, so on sale later this year – tied into the early bird offers.”
While Frank can’t divulge what that will exactly look like, he can say it will be “all independent and all over Japan”.
Right now, however, Australians are still flocking to the “usual” destinations, but with a few emerging hotspots – or “places that you wouldn’t think”.
“Number one is the usual… Switzerland, Italy, France… obviously all over Europe. But we’re seeing Ireland picking up, and Norway. We also see Canada and the US.”
Along with new product in Japan, Marini says there’ll be “a number of different regions in Europe coming up as well”.
“So we’re gonna have different combinations we haven’t had before based on demand,” he explains.
A good part of that demand is for luxury rail travel – and what the Railbookers boss describes as “little luxury”.
“In luxury, we’ve got the luxury rail providers that we package up with hotels and sightseeing, whether it’s Rocky Mountaineer… Venice-Simplon Orient Express,” he explains.
“But what we see with little luxury… are people looking in their packaging to add a little luxury – that could be a five-star hotel in one location because it’s their 30th anniversary. It could be something special that they want to do.
“We actually have a specific date where we have a private tour, after hours, and a meal in the Vatican.” (Read more about how you can get the Vatican to yourself with Railbookers on Karryon here.)
“But that may not be the whole trip. So you could stay at a four-star or three-star [hotel]. So it’s for a special occasion.”
#2 market
When it comes to markets, Australia ranks as the second-fastest growing market for the company. That’s why there are now 45 Railbookers staff in Australia – with the number one sales person, globally, based Down Under.
That success is built on the close relationship the business has established with the travel trade.
“We’re almost at a point where, for us and travel agent partners… it’s almost like limitless leads, unlimited inventory,” Frank says.
According to Marini, one of Railbookers’ main roles is simply to make travel advisors’ jobs easier.
“Rail is difficult. For a travel agent to know every rail system, how it works, the seating… ‘am I going to go backwards on that?… what’s the ticketing timeline?… I’m going through different countries. How do I read a German ticket?’. It can be overwhelming,” Frank says at a lunch for media in Sydney.
“They don’t have to be an expert. I like to say we’re like a mechanic for every car, every make, every model, every year, everywhere. So you don’t have to be like, ‘how does that work?’. We know how it works.
“The other thing that we’ve been doing since last year, and it’s really picked up here, is we did a lot of three-way calling with the travel agent and their customer.”
And Frank expects that to grow further still as business continues to rise.
“Rail really is the new river cruising,” Marini says.
“The thing I would say to travel advisors is… it’s really limitless what they can do and where they can go, because with the rise of FIT travel and where Australians are travelling, and the add-ons… rail is a perfect segment, because the footprint, the infrastructure is pretty much already in place.”
