Now in its 108th year in operation, Collette has some secrets to its success as the oldest, longest running tour operator in North America. And one of those pillars is travel advisors.
“The majority of our business is through advisors, it’s not even close,” Christian Leibl-Côté, Executive Vice President of Global Sales for the family-owned business, told TravelPress Today. “In Canada, it’s probably the highest of all the markets that we have, it’s pretty significant.”
Joined by members of the Canadian team, Leibl-Côté was in Burlington last night from Collette’s headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for a travel advisor appreciation event featuring trivia, Bingo, prize giveaways and insights into what sets Collette apart. A similar event was held in Halifax earlier this month.
“Travel advisors and the partners, for us, are such a key part of our business, of our strategy, of our future,” he said. “We’re here to celebrate and say thank you. That’s the most important thing because they work hard. Travel advisors have a lot on their plates. They get 600 emails a week on average, they get training from different partners. For them to say I want to work with Collette, I trust Collette, I believe in what they do and the product we offer, the innovations that we are doing, that means a lot to us – that means everything.”
Notably, Canada is also the fastest growing market for Collette for the third year in a row, something he credits to the work of the Canadian team.
Ron Lonsdale and Christian Leibl-Côté
“The number one thing is the relationships that we’ve built, with all of our partners and all of the advisors throughout the market, having our BDMs meeting with our advisors and being constantly on the road, I think that’s one of the reasons,” he shared. “But the other thing too is how we’ve innovated our product. We’ve changed what touring really is. We have designers and buyers that live in the destination.”
For example, in Italy, he shared that the company has two trip designers whose job is to travel around the country and to find, “things that are completely unique that travellers would love to do.”
Studying and understanding the wants and needs of travellers is also a driving force behind its product offerings. Over the years, he said Collette continues to make its tours better through the addition of these handcrafted curated experiences and by significantly reducing the number of mileage on its itineraries. Instead of roundtrip tours from London for example, a tour will start in London and end in Edinburgh to cut down on the distance guests have to travel.
“Prior to COVID, it was all about: let me be in five or six countries in 10 days. Now it’s about slowing the pace, being able to experience it, being with the locals. Touring has always had a bad perception, getting up at 6:00 a.m., following the flag, you are touring until 10:00 p.m. – touring really isn’t that,” said Leibl-Côté. “We’re leading the way in showing what touring really is… Travel is all about creating these memories that you are going to be able to talk about for the rest of your life.”
Ron Lonsdale and Brett Walker
One of the most popular options for travellers is the brand’s small-group Explorations line, which has seen double digit growth. There are currently tours in over 50 countries across all seven continents.
“It’s extremely hot,” he noted. “Just in the last two years, we’ve more than quadrupled the amount of departure dates and seats available for those. We’ve been doing small groups since 2008 and just from 2019 to 2026, we went from 19 tours to now we’re going to be over 60, 63 tours in 2027 and it’s expanding even more.”
From dealing with rising jet fuel prices to emerging news of Ebola as a concern, Leibl-Côté said that while “the travel industry is hit constantly by all kinds of things that happen on a yearly basis,” Collette has a crisis leadership team in place that is constantly monitoring what’s going on around the world.
“There’s a lot of communication that is going on. Obviously with Ebola right now we are on alert and we’re listening to everything that is going on, and right now everything is fine, knock on wood, but you never know. There’s always something that’s going on and we’re always on top of it,” he shared, adding that Collette has gained credibility on how they manage a crisis from providing cash refunds during COVID to swiftly getting travellers out of Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks.
The event also highlighted that guests who book air with the tour operator receive chauffeur service within 100 km to and from the airport.
Advisor rates are also available for those who want to experience the product firsthand, which resulted in a record high 1,100 advisors travelling with Collette in 2025.
“Canadians over-index with experiences over material goods,” added Ron Lonsdale, Vice President of Canada at Collette. “With our designers that live in-destination, with their buyers and operational teams, they’re giving us access to people’s homes, villas. We’re creating culinary and cultural immersion, unique experiences that the consumer can’t Google. They only deal with Collette.”
