Family, Legacy & Leadership: Inside Collette’s Journey with Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, CEO, Collette

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Episode 2 of our Guided Touring Series takes an in-depth look at the evolving world of guided travel with Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, the fourth CEO and first female leader of Collette, a 107-year-old family-owned touring company. Under Jaclyn’s leadership, Collette is redefining what guided travel can mean by focusing on authenticity, small group experiences, and genuine local connections.

Collette’s commitment to authenticity shines through their approach. Jaclyn emphasizes the importance of fostering genuine connections through meaningful interactions. Their Small Group Explorations program has seen over 70% year-over-year growth by venturing beyond typical tourist paths, offering unique experiences like cooking with a Jordanian host or engaging in open, supportive discussions on sensitive topics.

Guided touring is evolving, appealing to younger travelers and families seeking meaningful, convenient, and culturally immersive experiences. Under Jaclyn’s leadership, Collette integrates family values into both its corporate culture and travel offerings.

Experience travel reimagined with Collette. Enjoy small group adventures, authentic connections, and extraordinary destinations. Say goodbye to crowded tourist hotspots and hello to meaningful moments crafted by travelers, for travelers. Transform your next journey today!  

👉 Listen to Family, Legacy & Leadership: Inside Collette’s Journey Now

🔥 Season 5 Title Sponsors: TravelAI, Stay22, Propellic, Flight Centre, Collette, Flywire, Traveltek and Protect Group

Season 5 Launched Jan 15th. New Episodes Every Weds! Check out our first 4 Seasons.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I dabbled in the tour guiding side during my college
years.
But after college it's a familyrule that our Board of Advisors
had established for our for mygeneration generation gen 3 to
the Sullivan family we had towork outside the business for at
least three years after wegraduated University.
So I did do that in acompletely different space tech

(00:24):
space publicly traded company.
As soon as my three years wasup, I came in and I started
doing tour design and for theEastern US product.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Travel Trends.
This is your host, danChristian, and I'm thrilled to
continue our deep dive into theworld of guided touring.
And today is a very specialepisode because I have the
chance to speak with the CEO ofColette, jacqueline LaBelle Cote
.
Now, a bit of context fortoday's conversation is I got to
know her husband, christian,over the past year.
He's become a big fan of theTravel Trends podcast and him

(00:57):
and the team kindly agreed tosponsor season five.
So we're thrilled to have thispartnership.
But actually I really wanted tohave, as part of season five, a
deep dive into the world ofguided travel and I plan to
interview Christian.
So I reached out to Christianto schedule time to interview
and I just said to him is thereany chance that Jacqueline might
be able to join us?
And he was like by all meansinterview Jacqueline.

(01:18):
It was definitely the rightdecision, christian and all of
our listeners, as you'll hearhear today because this is a
extraordinary family-ownedcompany and she took over the
helm in the last few years.
So I have the opportunity inour discussion today to get her
backstory, in addition to thebackstory on Colette how she
came into the business and whenand how she grew up in the

(01:39):
business on the product side.
Which I really find fascinatingbecause that's such an
important part of multi-dayguided touring is the product
side.
Which I really find fascinatingbecause that's such an
important part of multi-dayguided touring is the product
development process.
So we get into quite a bit ofdetail about her role and the
focus on product and then wetalk about all the latest
developments at Collette.
Because when I think aboutguided touring one of the

(02:00):
categories that really appealsto me is small group and it's
actually one of the biggestdevelopments they've had in
recent years and is havingincredible growth, as the team
had highlighted to me.
I actually have quite a fewcolleagues that have gone over
to work with Colette in the lastfew years and absolutely love
it, and I now understand why,having the chance to get to know
some of their executive team.

(02:20):
But I think over the course ofthis season most of our
listeners have had a chance toget to know a little bit more
about Colette from all the adsthat we've had running our
series.
But the one other personalconnection I wanted to make is
that my father-in-law justbooked his first Colette trip.
He booked it last week on his75th birthday and he is so
excited to be going to Japanthis September with Colette.

(02:41):
I'm now working on getting mymom booked next and I'm hoping
to join her, and the reason thatI wanted to share that is
because not only am I an avidmulti-day tour traveler, but my
family is as well, and myextended family and I certainly
strongly believe it's the bestway to experience a destination,
especially with these smallgroup offerings that progressive

(03:02):
tour operators like Colettehave introduced.
I not only love this category,but I also I'm very bullish on
its potential, as I shared a fewstats in our opening episode
last week about the 20% growthforecasted for the next decade,
given all the demographicchanges and consumer interest in
this style of travel.
So there's many winds blowingin the direction of multi-day

(03:25):
touring and companies likeColette are seeing incredible
growth.
So we get into quite a bit ofdetail about that today, so I'm
really looking forward tobringing this conversation
together.
I just want to make sure that Ido highlight that all of these
episodes are available in clipsand highlights on our social
channels, so you can check themout at Travel Trends Podcast on
Instagram, linkedin and YouTube,and I also wanted to mention,

(03:48):
given how bullish I am on thisspace the sponsor for this
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Anytime We'll be right back.

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And now back to the show.

(07:26):
Now let's bring JacquelineLaBelle Coat into the
conversation.
I am thrilled to have you here,jacqueline.
Thank you so much for joiningus.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Thanks so much Dan Really excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Awesome.
Now there's a number of reasonsI'm keen to have you on.
One of them is obviously youare a strong female leader in
this space.
I have a great respect for yourcompany and the family-owned
business that you guys haveoperated.
So I'd love to start with that,because I think that is such an
important part of the Collettestory and having the opportunity
to speak to you now tounderstand how this business
came to be and how you've nowtaken over and leading the

(07:59):
charge.
So if you wouldn't mind, giveus a bit of background on
Collette and the family business.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
So it became a family business.
Well, it always was.
I guess Jack Collette foundedit in 1918.
My grandfather met him alongthe way he worked in the
railroad and they crossed pathsand he said look, if you're ever
looking to sell, I'd beinterested to buy it.
And my grandfather heard thathe was going to sell it to
someone else and said we had ahandshake and he goes.

(08:24):
You know what?
You're right, the guy's kind ofa jerk.
Anyway, I'd rather sell it toyou.
And so in 1962, my grandfathertook it over, so he was the
second CEO, so I'm the fourthCEO in 107 years and the first
female.
So yeah, it's a great story.
So it started super small youknow day trips, you know weekend

(08:47):
getaways, things like that andthen it just expanded.
My, once my dad came in aftercollege in the 70s, really just
started expanding.
Where we would sell to we weremore local, Rhode Island at the
time expanded that and then hetook it international in the 80s
and from there it's just that'swhere the story really just
grew.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well, actually I should clarify it's a good point
you mentioned just in terms ofwhere you're located, because I
drove past your office last year, just before we were
collaborating together, and wasastounded because I was in rhode
island.
I was like, oh my god, that'sclint's head office.
So tell everybody, uh, whereyou are and how you came to be,
uh, based there yeah, so it, itreally so.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
We've always been based in Rhode Island.
We've had different officeswhen we were, because we were
also a travel agency at onepoint.
So we were, you know, small,like I said, small mortar coach.
We had little offices inMassachusetts, but we were
always New England based.
But, yeah, that's where, that'swhere my grandfather started it
and that's where we continue tosupport in the community that

(09:42):
we are in today.
But, yeah, we're right off thehighway, on 95.
And you get right at theMassachusetts border.
So you do, we're very visiblewhen you, when you go through,
and there's Duncan right there,off the exit, of course, like
you'd always have a New England.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Of course, exactly, I saw a lot of those.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Now your background.
I want to get into how you roseto be the CEO.
Clearly, obviously, there's thefamily connection, but you've
definitely earned it and deservethat opportunity and I just
want to understand your journey.
So clearly, you were kind ofborn into the family business.
But take us through, if youwouldn't mind, how you decided

(10:18):
ultimately to make travel yourlife, because, as I was
preparing for our conversation,looking at your background, you
did your BA at Rhode Island.
You got your MBA as well, likeyou've been in the business for
a number of years.
But, yeah, tell us how youdecided that you were going to
commit your life to tourism andultimately leading the family
business.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, I mean it's travel.
So I have been around it all mylife.
I see it through my kids eyesas they're growing up to you.
You just see I see sort of whatI grew up as, what I saw as a
child, with my dad traveling andreally expanding the business.
Our kids are seeing us do that.
But so I always, I always knewI wanted to come into the
business.
Did I really understand whatthe business was when I was

(10:59):
probably my kids age and whatresponsibility that really meant
?
No, to be fair, be honest, butI always did know I wanted to
come into the business.
But so during high school,during college, I would work
there in the summers.
Again, this is way like earlycomputer days, right?
So this is like filing andactual file filing cabinets.

(11:19):
You know things like that.
You didn't have the technologythe same way we do today Doing
things you know like that.
But I also in college I wouldtour guide in the summers.
So that was when we I would doMontreal, quebec tours, I would
do our main Clambake, I would doour Penn Dutch tour.
So these would be like four,four day, five, you know, four
night, five day tours.
So I got, I dabbled in the tourguiding side during my college

(11:43):
years.
But after college it's a familyrule that our board of advisors
had established, probably forour for my generation,
generation Gen three to theSullivan family we had to work
outside the business for atleast three years after we
graduated university.
So I did do that in acompletely different space tech
space publicly traded company.

(12:04):
I did do that in a completelydifferent space tech space
publicly traded company.
As soon as my three years wasup, I came in and I started
doing tour design and for theEastern US product.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, that's what I found really interesting as well
, because I wasn't clear on whatyou were doing before, colette,
but I assumed you know, with afamily business and having
worked in a family business as Iwas telling Jacqueline just
before we started recording,working with the Tolman family
and knowing the importance, thelegacy and getting the
opportunity to work outside thebusiness first before coming
into the business is soimportant.
I saw that with Pernod Ricard,another company.

(12:33):
I worked closely with the CEO.
Very similarly, that came intothe business.
But I wanted to also understandyour journey within the
business, because one of thethings that really stood out to
me, jacqueline, about yourbackground is that you did start
on the product side, which Ithink is so important to
understand the business.
You were a product manager,then you were the director of
product development.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat journey, because clearly

(12:54):
you then understand the businessfully by virtue of
understanding how these toursand travel experiences are put
together.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, I love the product side.
It is fun, fun.
It's a great side of thebusiness to be a part of, and
when I came in back in 2005, um,so I'll be 20 years in may it's
coming soon.
Um, but uh, when I came in, wewere actually probably what
exists now is five differentteams in our company today was
rolled into one product managerposition.
It it was the research, it wasthe design, it was dealing with

(13:27):
the operation issues.
I was contracting, I wassetting up my trips to go out
and vet all the potentialsuppliers that we would
potentially use, what hotelswe'd use in New York City for a
New York City stay.
So that was the fun part of it,and so, um, I I did that for

(13:48):
probably about five years.
I did Eastern U?
S or a lot of the U?
S actually at the beginning,and then I actually did
Australia, new Zealand, andstarted South Pacific, which was
great because I was out of newEngland in the summer, in the
winters, which is summer inAustralia, new Zealand.
So it was wonderful to go formultiple weeks at a time to
contract and buy.
But that was our model back then.

(14:09):
We would fly people typicallyout of Rhode Island and they
would go all over Europe andthey would go all over the world
, which that's not our modelanymore.
We changed that in 2017.
But back when I was doing that,that's what I did.
So I started to learn the world.
Obviously, australia, newZealand and other parts as well

(14:31):
as I went to sales meetings andso, yeah, it was a fun, that was
a good entryway into thebusiness, let's say.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, for sure I can imagine it's a perfect way to
get to know the business, andone of the things that's unique
about Colette is that not onlydo you offer guided tours and
coach tours, as we typicallycall them, but group tours.
You have river cruises, youhave safaris, and there's a real
diversity to the productportfolio, and I think a lot of
our listeners would have pickedup on that, even hearing some of
the ads I created for thesafari series, this guided

(14:59):
touring series, and they'll hearin the river cruise series as
well.
But I'd love for you to give abit of an overview of the
company.
Obviously, we've talked a bitabout your role, a bit about the
family history, but I wouldlove to hear from your
perspective if you wouldn't mindproviding our listeners a bit
of an overview of Colette, andespecially in terms of the
product that you guys offer.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, we were a motor coach and
we were much smaller back in theday and we really expanded in
the late 80s and in the 90s.
That's where we really wentinternational, starting in
Europe but really just expandingfrom there.
And so we have many differenttravel styles.
We have our classic product wedabble in river cruise.
We don't own river cruise, wedon't own the ships, but we do

(15:40):
have offering in the rivercruise space.
We know how popular it is, sowe want to be relevant there.
But, um, you know so.
And then we have our smallgroup explorations that actually
we had established that in 2008but really, post pandemic,
we're seeing that just grow um,as a travel style, that that
people are looking for smallergroup, um, just more niche,

(16:02):
secondary destinations, cities,things like that.
So it's been great.
But we have over 170 tours.
Yeah, we span the globe.
We have Antarctica, so we touchall seven continents, and so
there's a breadth of product anda travel style for everyone.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, it's interesting, the small group
explorations.
I know, speaking to some of yourteam members, just how that has
taken off for you in the lasttwo years, so I definitely want
to get a bit more into theproduct, how the business is
evolving.
But before we do, there's acouple of things I want to also
understand about the journeyyou've been on and specifically

(16:39):
understanding how Colettediffers to all the other guided
touring brands that are outthere, because, as any of our
listeners know, it's certainlymy background from G Adventures
and working with Trafalgar andInsight and being very active in
the space, advocating for theguided touring sector even to
the big OTAs to try and convincethem that there is a massive
market here, it's growing, andthese are certainly the things

(16:59):
that you've known and seen.
But I think we've both come upagainst the perception in this
category that it is for theolder generation that is aging
out, and the reality is actuallywe're seeing a lot more young
people embrace guided touring,and an interesting stat that I'd
shared from ITB is that a grouptouring is outpacing

(17:19):
independent travel and solofemale travelers is a big factor
, which is so I would love ifyou wouldn't mind giving us a
bit of insight as to how Colettestacks up against the
competition.
I guess what I'm really tryingto get into is like those things
I love which is like they're.
You know the USPs is whysomeone will choose Colette over
another guided touring company.

(17:39):
So what are some of thosethings that you're very
conscientious of that have beenvery intentionally built into
the brand to make you stand outin the marketplace, attract
great talent and convincetravelers to take not only their
first trip with you but to keepcoming back?

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, I think that's a great question.
I think and you like you saidyou were in the guided travel
space it can be there's aperception that well, there's a
perception, just with guidedtravel, that it's, it's fixed,
there's no free time, and Ithink that perception has.
We've we've, at Colette, reallyworked to change that

(18:13):
perception over the last decade,for sure, but hyper-focused
within the last seven to eightyears, I would say, of what that
looks like and how do we breakthose stereotypes.
But it's very hard to do in theguided travel space, because
you can kind of just put a stampon something but there's no
regulation and necessarilyfollow through per se, right.

(18:34):
And so what makes Coletteunique and different?
And what we do to set ourselvesapart?
To set ourselves apart, andit's intentional.
We, like I said before, we hadeveryone who lived in Rhode
Island and we would fly them totheir region of where they might
design tours and negotiate thesuppliers and all of that.
We really are for travelers, bytravelers.

(18:57):
I mentioned in 2017 that we sortof broke that model, but we
really we started hiring peoplein destination.
So, example my designer forItaly, who designs all of my
Italy programs, lives justoutside of Rome.
My contractor for Italy livesactually in Spain, but he grew
up in Italy.
He's Italian, so they're in thedestination.

(19:18):
And so we use third parties andDMCs in some like in the Egypt
of the world, in some places,but it's very rare because we
really want to make sure that weown the brand experience and
the customer experience.
A lot of tour companies do gothrough ground operators or
third parties.
You're going to get more cookiecutter when you do that, and so
the reason we have ourphilosophy, the way we do, is

(19:41):
one to continue to manage thebrand experience and customer
experience, like I mentioned,but also to be able to hear
specifically from our travelerswhat's working, what's not
working, and being be able topivot and change the customer
experience so that if we havemore travelers coming and
something really isn't working,why would I have hundreds,

(20:02):
potentially thousands moretravelers have that bad
experience as well?
So, but by having boots onground and destination, we're
able to react very quickly andalso just know what are new
trends that are coming, what are.
You know what are what's,whether it's a hotel or a new
supplier coming online.
That's going to be a reallygreat experience for the

(20:24):
travelers being able to haveboots on ground that are just in
the know of information all thetime is is one of the big
pieces.
I think that we we focus on andcontinue to invest in and
support to create the the bestexperience that we can um.

(20:46):
The best experience that we canum.
We listen to our travelers allthe time.
We listen to our partners, butwe listen to our travelers.
That evolves our brandstandards and how we design the
guided travel experience.
We know that people do not wantto be sitting on a coach and
they'd rather be off the coach.
So, as much as possible, um,we've started to really focus on
pacing.
If you open brochures and seemultiple one night stays, you

(21:07):
know you should close it.
You should close the brochure,close the website, because it's
likely not going to be the bestexperience.
When people are typically goinground trip Rome, they're those
tour companies I would call themtypically more standard and
they're putting you on the coachfor longer hours than necessary
, you know.

(21:31):
So, trying to be unique and bedifferent in the ways that we
approach the full design tooptimize the travelers.
They're paying to go on thesegreat vacations and I always say
what they think they want whenthey're purchasing and then what
they tell us post experience isa little bit different.
So trying to bridge that earlyand then help train and advise

(21:53):
why it's best not to be on coachor do round trip cities, you
know, working that way.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
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(24:14):
And now back to the show.
The other thing I'd like to askyou, just in terms of that
Colette difference and the typesof customers you attract, is
who the audience typically isfor Colette tours and how you've
seen that evolving in the lastfew years, because I'm sure that
there's a wide range of agesand types of travelers that take
Colette trips.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, I mean.
And one other thing I wanted tomention too is the one big
difference that I should havementioned is we're 100% focused
on guided travel.
That is what we do.
We don't own hotels.
Like I said, we dabble in rivercruise, but we don't own the
river cruise.
We have a partner.
So we are really making surethat we continue to trailblaze
and pioneer the guided travelspace.
I think sorry, that was animportant one that I missed on,

(24:58):
but who our traveler is istypically it's average age of
about 65, semi-retired, retired,but to your point, it's really
it has shifted and, again,depending on the time of year,
in our summer months, you'redefinitely going to see more
multi-gen and we've really seenthat in our data and looking at

(25:20):
what are the ages of ourtravelers in different times of
the year.
So you do have you know, big,you know you were talking before
you have fraternal twins andfor high school graduations, you
see a lot of times parents orgrandparents who are taking
their grandkids, whether it'shigh school graduation, college
graduation, and doing these bigonce in a lifetime trips.

(25:40):
So you do see a lot of that.
And multi-gen, for sure, isexpanding and it has been
growing for quite a while.
And there are the Africans,which we've been doing for three
decades, and some of thosedestinations are the perfect
multi-gen destinations becausethere is something for everyone.
And that some of thosedestinations are the perfect
multi-gen destinations becausethere is something for everyone.
And who doesn't want to see anelephant?

(26:01):
And I don't care if you're inyour seventies or your eighties
or if you're 14, like my boy,you know, it's all, you're just
in awe, no matter what.
So there is, there is somethingfor everyone, but it does vary
based on times of the year.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
In terms of the guided touring, brands that have
been able to reinventthemselves, remain contemporary
and answer what it is thattravelers are seeking today are
clearly the ones that arethriving.
I know Colette is, and which iswhy it's great to have this
conversation and also thepartnership, because I think
when I looked at how yourproduct was evolving and talking
to Ron and a couple of membersof your team and I've sat

(26:36):
through training sessionsbecause I was overseeing the
rollout of Global Journeys inNorth America and their Toronto
office, and so I've seen theteam be trained on Colette and
there's many things that stoodout to me that have been quite
impressive about the brand.
And the specific thing that Iwanted to get into a bit more is
this concept of guided touringbeing reimagined, where you get
a chance to eat in locals homes,you can do cooking classes, you

(26:59):
don't just travel by coach, youactually get on trains or you
ride on tuk-tuks, and I thinkthis is the part for me that I
always loved about adventuretravel like brands, like
intrepid and g adventures, andso it's exciting for me when I
see a brand like colette that isnot only going small group but
also better connecting with,which clearly is one of the
things that you know thattravelers are seeking.
They love being able to travelamongst a group, even though

(27:21):
they have apprehensions about itwho's going to be in the group.
But once they actually get onthe trip and they start
realizing that wait a second.
These are people I'm surroundedby my tribe, or I'm surrounded
by this type of people that havean interest in foreign travel
and so, by and large, they'relike-minded individuals.
So you're going to, you know youconnect with the people you're
traveling with, but then youwant to connect with locals.
So that's the part I want toget into and it's part of the

(27:42):
reason, jacqueline, I wanted tomention about your background,
understanding productdevelopment and how critical
that is to the successfuldelivery of guided tours.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat that actually means to you.
When I you know when thatactually means to you when I you
know, when we say the words,that we're focused on
integrating local culture andmaking it a authentic guided
touring experience.
Tell us a little bit how you'vegone on that journey and what

(28:05):
some of the experiences are on aguided tour with Colette that
really bring that to life?

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, no, and that to me, that's a great one because
there are, like I said earlier,anyone can kind of stamp on
local experience.
Of course, if you're travelingto France, we can all call
everything a local experience.
That's again where the boots onground become really important,
because anyone can do a homehosted, but you're going to go

(28:29):
through sometimes more of thecookie cutter experience or a
staged experience.
What we really are breakingbarriers on is, again, this is
where the boots on ground are socritical is making sure that we
are moving, we're away fromthose staged, you know, larger
companies that can take multiplegroups at a time and have that

(28:52):
cultural experience, but it's astaged cultural experience and I
think that's really that hasbeen, you know for sure.
It does, I think, stem from mycoming into product and seeing
how we design tours but thenlistening to the travelers and
seeing what their expectationsare and really marrying the two
to make sure that we're.
We're putting tours, you know,together and create tours that

(29:15):
people want to experience againand again, but in different
destinations, um, so we haveimpact moments that we have um
integrated definitely on on allof the or most of the small
group explorations, um, but wehave our tour through Egypt and
Jordan.
So we're going to visit AlEzra's kitchen and we're going
to have a cooking class.

(29:35):
Um, we're going to have acooking class.
We're going to experience alocal Jordanian family and we're
going to do a cooking classwith them.
And the best part of those isit is only Colette.
It is typically they're notworking with other tour
companies.
They may be in some cases, buttypically not.

(29:56):
It's just Colette when we'rethere.
But the best part when you dothose is you're one getting a
cultural experience becauseyou're learning how to cook
something you know in theirculture, but then you're meeting
the family and able to talk andask very honest questions and
have very honest conversations.
One of the things that we do onour small group explorations and
it's intentional is we havewhat are called crucial

(30:18):
conversations so we can talkabout things that might be seen
as potentially political or youknow where.
As Americans, we might havecertain perceptions, but we can.
It's a comfort.
We do it in a comfortable spacewhere there's no judgment, but
we really will ask some of thehard questions that either as

(30:40):
Americans or Canadians or umpast wars and their perceptions
on it or their points of viewfrom being you know, being local

(31:02):
, um, so those are the thingsthat you can't really bring to
life in an itinerary with thewords, but those are the
experiences that travelers arewriting about when they tell us
in the survey and those are theexperiences that they're
definitely going home andtelling their friends about.
That really made it different.
And again it's just you don't,people don't want staged anymore

(31:23):
, and that's the challenge againwith the guided travel space is
you definitely have thefive-star we know who that is
but then a lot of them arereally standard.
There's a lot of more moneycoming out of your pocket when
you're on tour, a lot of daysthat might have no paid
inclusions and you can see thatquickly by sea view If you're
not seeing visit and it's notgetting into deep like.

(31:45):
There are so many ways to makea traveler or consumer think
that you're going to get allthis value, but you're not
getting it to the way maybe youintend to.
And that's where we want tojust be upfront and honest with
our travelers and making surethey know exactly what they're
getting when they travel withCollect.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, and that's the difference between a legacy
brand that is modernized butalso relies heavily on repeat
business, and the only waythey're able to do that is by
delivering on the experience,because you're absolutely right,
and that's where sometimes youget bad actors, and I think
there's less and less in ourspace, but there certainly has
been over time where people havehad a negative experience with
a guided touring because theprice seemed reasonable, and

(32:25):
then they're paying for all ofthese optionals and they're
staying outside of town, not inthe city, and so but some of
those are factors of that's whyit was the price.
It was so helping customersunderstand the value for money
and what they're actuallygetting.
The other thing I wanted totalk to you about too,

(32:50):
jacqueline, is sustainability,given just how important that
has become for travelers.
Post pandemic, people havebecome certainly more
conscientious, but also it seemsto be more and more that
travelers are making decisionswith sustainability in mind.
They're looking at companiesthat align with their values or
they're just aware of theirimpact, and so I was keen to
know beyond Certainly smallgroups is a big step in that
direction.
Taking local transport and evensome of the local experiences
we were just talking about whereyou're actually putting money

(33:13):
into a destination, unlike someof the big ocean cruise lines
that are not contributing to thelocal economy.
So already there's a anadvantage of traveling guided.
But, yeah, tell us some of thethings, initiatives that you
have, and how Colette isapproaching sustainability.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, I mean there's so many different ways you can
approach sustainability,especially in travel, right to
your point.
But that is like when we'rechoosing accommodations,
definitely across all travelstyles.
So whether it's larger group orsmaller group, when we can, we
want to.
You know I don't necessarilywant to be in the big box hotel

(33:47):
chains that we're used to andhave comfort to here and you
know where we come from, and sowhen we can support a family
owned um hotel or that one isgoing to be one family owned but
it's gonna.
So you know you're supportingthe local economy but you're
also um contributing to um thecommunity that they live in.

(34:10):
Um and the other piece onsustainability, I mean there's a
lot here that we can unpack.
But the other one is on smallgroups and some of the others as
well.
The secondary cities.
I mean obviously we'resupporting the Rome's and the
Florence's and the Paris's andthe big cities.
All the tour companies aregoing in there.
But to go to some of thosesecondary cities like we have

(34:32):
the Puglia tour now in Italythat wasn't really on the map a
couple years ago but going intosome of those smaller villages,
we're helping again to supportother local communities through
tourism, but in other ways.
Obviously, we eliminated alluse of single-use plastic on
tour as best we could.

(34:52):
I mean just it has impact onthe places that we're traveling
to.
One of the things we're alsodoing is we have a compost
program at headquarters.
So we're headquartered here outof Rhode Island in the US, but
we also have our offices inMississauga and Vancouver and
Sydney, australia.
But we have partnered with EpicRenewal, which is a local
composting company.

(35:13):
It's based in Pawtucket, whichis where we're actually
headquartered in central falls,which is a nearby community.
The partnership is facilitatedthrough social enterprise,
greenhouse, seg for anyone whomight be familiar with them, and
they are an amazing, absolutelyamazing.
They have an absolutely amazingnetwork of over a thousand
enterprises and work with over200 businesses.

(35:33):
So being trying to educate andbeing more mindful, even in our
local community um with ouremployees and trying to have
them understand and helping themunderstand the impact that we,
that we have on our you know, onour environment, um is just,
it's critical Um, and weactually are.
We put solar panels, um on ourwellness center.
I think that happened in thefall of 2024.

(35:54):
So that happened just not toolong ago.
So, you know, in those ways youknow we're being sustainable,
not only globally on tour youknow examples but also at
headquarters and other.
You know all of our remoteoffices as well, with the impact
that we as an employer andemployees can make.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, that's great.
I know certainly from being onthe inside.
There's advocates internally, soobviously you've got your
customers giving you feedback,your product team and then
employees inside theorganization that are saying
here are some of the things thatwe can do to be more
sustainable and also even justapproaching our trip experience.
And that's one of the things Iwas actually also keen to get
your feedback on, just in termsof how much customer feedback

(36:39):
impacts the tour offerings andif you you know you coming up in
that space and seeing how it'sevolved in the last few years.
I mean especially some of thethings we've talked about, not
just sustainability, but thesmall group touring and, as you
mentioned, going into rivercruise even though not having
your own ships, but the smallgroup touring and, as you
mentioned, going into rivercruise even though not having
your own ships.

(37:00):
But yeah, I guess what I'm keento know is how you do factor in
customer feedback to shape youroverall approach, but
specifically your new tourofferings, or how you make
adjustments to the product.
How do you guys do that?
And I guess, how important isthat to Colette?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Oh, it's extremely important to us.
That's been sort of that'swhere I come from.
My background is understandingand listening to the traveler,
but there's also we have ourpartners as well and listening
to what our partners needs are.
And so there's always there'sthe traveler, and so we have our
surveys.
Like I said, we're listening towhat they're telling us every

(37:34):
single day.
My product design team is inthose surveys for their regions
every single day to see what'sworking, what's not working,
what do we need to be changing.
You know that's who's paying atthe end of the day and they're
the ones who are evolving intowhat their expectations are.
And if we're assuming that weknow internally what the

(37:57):
travelers want, then I'm beingI'm going to say we're being
lazy and we're being ignorant.
So it really is about makingsure that those that are paying
for the experience and can andwill provide you the feedback.
We have a high survey returnrate because it is not
inexpensive to travel and ifpeople loved it, they want you

(38:18):
to know that they loved it.
If they loved their tourmanager typically they usually
do, and you have high kudos onthe tour managers.
They want you to know that, andif they didn't like something
they also very clearly want tomake sure that we are aware of
what they didn't like.
And then we just look forpatterns.
Did everyone not like it?
Was this a one-off?
Did something happen that wouldhave impacted a departure date?

(38:41):
So we don't just you know, wedon't act on every single bit of
feedback, but we do look forpatterns.
We do look for big issues, hotissues that we would need to
address, some in the nextproduct season and some, like I
said, immediately, especiallycoming out of the pandemic.
It was huge because, if youremember, there was a lot of.

(39:01):
We didn't have the same servicelevels in hospitality and I
remember we were running our NewOrleans spotlight tour and the
first departure that we had wegot feedback from pretty much
all the travelers that you knowthe services weren't there at
the hotels, whether it was forthe breakfast, for the you know
room cleaning, whatever.
And we made the decision tomove hotels until our partner

(39:26):
hotel could get their servicelevels back to where they needed
to be for our travelers.
And so eventually we did moveback and we recognized it was a
challenging year for many at thetime.
But that's the impact that wecan have because, just because
30 people had a terribleexperience.
I'm not going to let another200, 300, 400 people out knowing
that we didn't have the servicelevels.

(39:47):
So that's the gift of feedback,that's the gift of information.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, I think one of the things that also has stood
out to me is I got to know BrettWalker and Ron Lonsdale, who
run the Canadian office and teamin Mississauga, of course, and
I'm based in Toronto, so I'vehad a chance to get together
with them a number of times overthe last year and really get to
know the brand that much better.
And one of the things in myprevious role was this concept

(40:14):
of the 10-year wallet, where youwere looking across the data of
all your customers, becauseit's one thing in terms of what
they tell you and it's anotherthing to look at what they do
and the types of trips that theybook, and so my big focus was
this concept of lifetimecustomer value.
I'm sure you have somethingvery similar at Collette, where
you're conscientious of makingsure that over the course of 10
years, we were trying to makesure they traveled within the

(40:35):
travel corporation group ofbrands, so they take an African
safari one year, a river cruise,the next a guided tour, but
part of that was looking at thedata and just trying to
understand their travel patterns.
So it's interesting when youmentioned that, and that's one
of the things I was keen to askyou about is that?
How do you at Collette followthe data?
How are you leveragingtechnology today to make sure

(40:58):
that you are customizing theofferings and making sure that
you are promoting the rightproduct to the right people at
the right time so that they seethat, oh, this is the year to go
to Japan.
My father-in-law, who's going tobe taking a Collette soon.
He is as soon as we startedworking together and I told him
all about Collette because he'straveled with Insight before and
Rick Steves and with Trafalgarand Globus.
Anyway, he's super excited totake his first Colette trip and

(41:18):
he was doing all his research onthe website and he's like torn
right now between going to Japanand Africa and I'm still
waiting for his final decision.
But for him, he thrives ongetting emails with reminders
about trips and that's exactlyhow he used to always book an
Insight vacations trip beforeand I always found it really
exciting when he would tell methat he got an email about a

(41:39):
destination and I was like, yeah, actually we engineered that
that way, right, it's likeyou're you're trying to make
sure you get the right messagein front of travelers to inspire
them to travel.
So how do you approach that atColette, what sort of data are
you using and if, is there anyinsights that have surprised you
about your travelers?

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Insights.
That surprised me.
I'll think on that one.
That's a good question.
Yeah, no, I mean coming fromand there is.
We have a lot of data.
We've really built up our datawarehouse over the last oh gosh,
well over five years.
But, having you know a data teamthat we're also dealing with
legacy systems, there's a lot oftechnology in the works right

(42:19):
now for self-service systems toyour just the whole pre-customer
journey on tour, post-tour, Toyour point, there's.

(42:39):
There's so many, especially inour space, because when, when
they're choosing the travel,it's so much earlier than when
the actual travel takes place.
So there's such a biganticipation phase that can
really be, we can be engaging,we can be like get everyone, get
people excited about wherethey're going, where they chose
to go movie recommendations,book recommendations, just
little bits of things.
So there are, to that point,there's so much opportunity.
But, yeah, there's a lot thatwe have in the works right now

(43:01):
with technology and investmentwith technology to continue to
improve based on the just eventhe partner expectations, but
definitely the travelerexpectations.
So there's a lot of that that'sgoing on right now, um, so,
there's a lot of that that'sgoing on right now, um, as far

(43:21):
as well, the one thing I'll sayof what you asked about the
traveler um trends, anythingthat's surprised me.
What actually?
I don't know if it did, itdidn't really surprise me.
But post the pre pandemic, thetours that were really popular
were the same tours that cameback post-pandemic.
Our traveler demographic didn'tpsychographically change.

(43:43):
For the most part, japan was atop tour.
It still continues to be a toptour.
Iceland was a top tour.
It still continues to be.
Ireland, italy, so all theplaces that people wanted to go.
The only difference I would saythat is that people are
traveling longer Um, and theycontinue to do that, definitely
out of Australia.

(44:03):
They used to have a lot of backto back Um, so people are
spending more time when they're,when they're deciding to go Um,
but yeah, I don't know ifthey're, if the travelers are,
they're just set on tour.
They want to go.
I mean, if they were a Europetraveler and Africa just never
seemed in their spectrum orcomfort level, to go to the

(44:25):
pandemic for them didn'tpsychographically change them to
be like I want to go to Africanow they still want to go to
Europe those lines?

Speaker 2 (44:36):
I'm keen to know.
So one of the trends, for sure,as you just highlighted, was
that after the pandemic, peoplerushed to get back to the
destinations that they couldn'tget to because, all of a sudden,
once travel was taken away fromyou, as soon as you had the
opportunity to travel again, youwere going to do that trip to
Japan or that trip to Italy, and, of course, one of the things
that we did see was that therewas some challenges with over
tourism and, in some cases,climate change, the weather like
, so, italy was overheated andovercrowded, and then people

(44:57):
started looking at otherdestinations.
One of the things that I woulduh be keen to to know from uh
colette's perspective is thatafter we had that revenge travel
and this is where I never likedthat term, I'm sure you don't
care for it either it's justsomeone coined it and everyone
started using it yeah and uh,but as and then everyone's
talking about, oh, revengetravel's, it's like well, the
reality is that travelers, nowwhen you've had something taken

(45:18):
away from you, you're no longergoing to take it for granted,
and one of the things that I'vecertainly seen, and again keen
to get your take on this, isthat people are traveling more
frequently and not putting themoff.
So even if they're going to thesame destinations, they're
actually traveling with moreintensity.
They're traveling longer, asyou mentioned.
That's certainly a trend thatwe've seen, but are you seeing
that there is?
It's reducing the time inbetween trips, because we always

(45:41):
used to look at this like itwas more like 18 months.
Sometimes.
You know, people wouldn'tnecessarily take a guided tour
every year, but they might takeone every two years, and so we
would start to market to themabout 18 months after their
first trip, not thinking that welost them.
We actually it's just a longerlead cycle for a return trip.
So I actually just generallycurious if you've seen anything

(46:02):
along those lines as, as travelscontinue to surge, have you
seen that your travelers aretraveling more frequently, that
they're booking again, likewithin six months or within a
year, or that they're pickingnew destinations in addition to
like that, as you're launchingthese new programs?
Cause I certainly know that thesmall group programs has just
taken off I think ron wastelling me it was up 70 year
over year and I was keen to knowif that is existing customers

(46:23):
choosing that or is that newcustomers coming into colette?

Speaker 1 (46:27):
it's a for for the small group.
It's a bit of both.
It's definitely new, um, youknow we're we're good at
acquiring and so so there aredefinitely new travelers and, I
would say, some of the classictravelers that have tried the
small group explorations andenjoyed the small group
explorations.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
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(49:38):
Now back to the show.
Jacqueline, I'm so enjoyingthis conversation.
I want it to continue.
I know I need to be mindfulover all of time, so hopefully
we can make this part one of twoand have you back in season six
as well, because I'm sure ouraudience is going to want to
continue on this path of guidedtouring, and so one of the
things I wanted to ask you aspart of our discussion is where

(50:00):
Colette is headed in the futurewith guided touring.
I know we've talked a lot aboutthe category, a bit about the
history, but where do you seethis category five years from
now?
What is your vision, I guess,for 2030, in terms of new
destinations, how the productwill evolve?
What does the future of guidedtouring look like to you?

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, I mean I think that the small group
explorations will continue togrow and become a bigger piece
of the portfolio it's doingreally well.
Travelers are clearly statingand telling us that they enjoy
it.
It scores higher excellence andthe way that we can design that
those programs are, we don'ttake our classic and just make

(50:38):
it smaller group.
We actually curate the entiretour experience differently from
all of the selections ofeverything we do, so that that
in and of itself makes for adifferent experience when you go
small group.
So I think that that willcontinue to evolve.
There haven't been a lot ofplayers in the small group space
in B2B.
I think we were somewhat of alate adopter to not collect.

(51:01):
I think we were actually earlyin the space.
I don't think that the B2B sidewas ready but where the reason
that we launched explorations inthe small group was because
there were so manydirect-to-consumer companies
that did it and you know thatthey did it in big number, in
really large volume.
And so for Colette, we feltthat we were missing a brand and

(51:21):
an opportunity to support theadvisors and the B2B community
with that small group.
So I think now that it's um,it's sort of taken off.
I think that's where we'llcontinue to see um the evolution
of the guided travel space.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Well, it's clear to me that Colette will continue to
lead the way, not only in termsof being a great brand with a
really all-star team I know manyof her colleagues and certainly
with yourself leading thisbusiness.
That was one of the things Iactually wanted to say, cause I
want to give you the last wordto let people know where to find
out more information aboutColette.
Obviously, we've mentionedGoColettecom, but in terms of
connecting with you and the teamand the one other thing I just
want to say, jacqueline, notonly am I thrilled to have this

(51:58):
opportunity to meet you, becausethis is our first time I've got
to know your husband, christian, over the last year.
I was raised by a single mom,so I was just like I wanted to
make sure that we had femaleleadership on the guided touring
series, because otherwise we dohave three male leaders, and so
I appreciate you makingyourself available for this
conversation.
Obviously, it's great to get theview from your perspective, and

(52:20):
the one thing I just wanted tohighlight to our listeners as
well is that you know,jacqueline has a young family.
She's got twins, she's got a 12year old.
So I think one of the thingsthat stood out to me.
Not only do you work for afamily-owned company, but you
are running a business with ayoung family and I know how
challenging I have a good senseof how challenging that can be.

(52:40):
But I just wanted to recognizethat because obviously I want to
see more leaders certainlyfemale leaders have that
opportunity and so to be therefor both for your family and for
the business and, you know, todevelop your professionally,
which clearly you're doing so.
So, yeah, it's a real honor tomeet you.
I thank you for making the timeand our partnership, but I want
to make sure that people canconnect with you or the team, so

(53:03):
where else would you point themto, jacqueline?

Speaker 1 (53:05):
First, thank you very much.
It's.
It's never easy, but it ispossible.
So for anyone out there thatthinks it is, and it really is,
um and yeah, so thank you againfor having me.
It's been great.
I'm sorry that you've gotten toknow my husband more over the
last 12 months.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I really enjoy his company.
He's a football player, and nowI actually know that you're a
dog lover too, so I regard youeven that much higher because
you're.
We both got dogs in thebackground of our recording
today.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Oh yeah, Penny's snoring a little bit in the
background.
She's a cutie, but yeah, no,again, appreciate it.
Gocolettecom we also go intoyour travel advisors and have in
contact with your BDM, yourbusiness development manager, to
help support you in any waythat they can.
We have one of the largestsales force in all of North

(53:49):
America, have one of the largestsales force in all of North
America, and so they're there tosupport the advisor community
and help train, understand whoColette is, how we're evolving
in the space.
So yeah, great things, greatthings in the past, great things
coming ahead, so really lookingforward to it.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah for sure.
And one thing I'm lookingforward to as well not only my
family traveling Colette, butI'm going to have the
opportunity shortly as well.
We've tried to just try to makeit work over in Europe, but
we're going to do that sometimethis summer.
So I'm looking forward tohaving the Colette experience
myself and understanding theColette difference.
So, yeah, but I just yeah, realpleasure, real honor to meet
you, jacqueline, and thank youso much for all the support and,

(54:24):
yeah, look forward to keepingin touch with you and your
husband.
Thanks so much for joining us onour latest episode of Travel
Trends.
I hope you're enjoying our deepdive into the world of guided
touring.
I certainly thoroughly enjoyedthe conversation that you just
heard with Jacqueline LaBelleCote, the CEO of Colette.
Thanks again to Jacqueline,christian, paul, julie and Ron,
who have been terrific to workwith over at Colette.

(54:44):
And, as I mentioned, myfather-in-law is traveling
shortly with Colette andhopefully my mother is going to
be shortly as well, and I lookcertainly forward to having the
opportunity to experienceColette.
So thanks again to the team forour partnership.
And on our next episode we'reactually going to hand over to
London, england, to speak to themanaging director of Explore
Worldwide, michael Edwards.

(55:05):
Now, michael and I had theprivilege to work together at GE
Adventures a number of yearsago.
He went on to Intrepid and thento Lead Explore, which is the
third largest adventure travelbrand, and I was really keen to
bring adventure into the mixwith this guided touring series,
just given the significantgrowth of this overall category,
and the reality is thatadventure touring is, of course,
part of guided multi-day tours.

(55:25):
So I'm really looking forwardto bringing you the conversation
with Michael next week.
They have an extraordinary teamThey've just launched in North
America, and so make sure thatyou are subscribed on the
streaming platform of yourchoice to be notified when new
episodes go live.
So do that on Spotify or Apple,and then also don't forget that
we do send out a monthlynewsletter, which you can
register for atTravelTrendsPodcastcom, where we

(55:48):
summarize all the latest,latest episodes, as we'll do
with the guided touring series,and give highlights of our
upcoming travel plans and theevents we're going to be
attending for the next month, soyou can hopefully meet us while
we're out on the road.
And we do have a few big eventscoming up.
We're going to be at theaviation festival in miami at
the beginning of may, and thenthe adventure travel and trade
association conference at theend of may in den, and then,

(56:11):
starting in June, we're going tobe at the Focusrite Europe
Conference in Barcelona, june10th to 12th, so hopefully many
of you can join us there.
There is a link to a 100 eurodiscount on the homepage of our
website.
If you still need to grab aticket, that's the best way to
do it.
And thanks again to our seriessponsor, tour Optimaima.
If you want to learn moredetails, check out touroptimacom

(56:33):
or just send an email to ben attouroptimacom to arrange a demo
of their white label app, whichis absolutely fit for purpose
for multi-day tour brands.
So be sure to check them out.
And until next week, safetravels.