In 1928, Antonio Mantegazza began giving tours of Lake Lugano, Switzerland, in a single rowboat.
Ninety years later, his dream has grown into a travel business giant — like its name implies, Globus is truly a worldwide tour operator. 2018 is a special year for the company, and Scott Nisbet, CEO of Globus Family of Brands, spoke with TravelAge West about how far Globus has come from its humble yet ambitious beginnings, and where the industry leader is headed in the future.
How has Globus managed to stay relevant for 90 years?
I would say it comes down to really understanding market needs and trends, evolving our products and even coming up with new brands to address them. That’s been one of the keys because travel changes; baby boomers travel very differently than the generation before them, and Gen Xers are traveling different than boomers.
If you look at all our brands, we have more than 500 different itineraries. In the very beginning, it was just trips to Switzerland. And then it became what we call panorama trips, which are multicountry tours in Europe. Those became really popular. Then clients wanted more regional focused trips to Italy, Spain or whatever it may be.
We stayed in touch with what people want. One of the key ways we do that is through our travel agency partners. Our advisory board really helps steer us in the right direction when we have ideas for new brands or new extensions. Whatever it might be, we bring it to them, and they advise us. They also help us understand how we can be a better partner to the travel agency community. How do we make it easier to do business, while helping them create and close business?
What does Globus have planned for its anniversary year?
We have a few things going on. First, we have promotions in different markets around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and India, among other places. They all have their own version. One example is we have tours priced at a lower level in the Americas and in Europe that sell for $1,928, in honor of the year we started.
There will be events, too, such as internal parties with our offices and others where we invite travel agents. Really at the heart of this 90-year success are travel agents. They’ve been the ones carrying our message; they’re the ones with relationships with travelers. The trips that we sell are big trips; you’re not just renting a car or booking a hotel room. There are a lot of moving parts, and it makes sense to go and get independent advice. We credit our 90 years to those relationships we have with the agency community. It’s been great, and we want to continue to foster that.
Really at the heart of this 90-year success are travel agents. They’ve been the ones carrying our message; they’re the ones with relationships with travelers.
Where is Globus looking in the future?
Globus will keep evolving. We’re now seeing development in terms of things such as lesser-known cities and sites. We launched an “Undiscovered Italy” for 2018, and it’s doing great. There’s interest in places that are difficult to get to, and a tour lends itself to helping you get there — logistics and all. That trip, along with more exotic destinations in South America, Asia, the South Pacific and Africa , continue to be on the rise. There will be more of that. We’re going to be expanding Avalon Waterways in India. Monograms is also growing.
Combo trips — where we combine Globus and Avalon, for instance — are increasing. We’re taking advantage of the four brands that we have. You can buy one air ticket, and you can get two trips that are patched together, which is kind of nice.
Custom trips are also doing well. If you pick up the Globus brochure and flip through those pages, we can do any one of those trips privately with just your family and friends. And even though we have a lot of itineraries, agents want to have something special, unique to their interests or customer base. In Britain, we’ve had people who ask for James Bond tours, Harry Potter tours and Beatles tours — you name it; there are all sorts of things we end up creating.
