Ramble Worldwide managing director Wayne Perks has said the walking specialist has seen growing demand for trips in the UK and western Europe alongside falling sales for long-haul regions as a result of the Middle East conflict.
Perks said the market had been “a bit slower” this year as he outlined recent trends.
“With the noise coming from the Middle East, we’ve seen a bit of an uptick for the UK and Europe,” he said.
Perks spoke to Travel Weekly before the US launched fresh strikes on Iran this week.
Ramble Worldwide, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in March, is hosting a series of 12 free guided walks in the UK in August to give people a “taster” of its product.
The brand offers about 200 tours in the UK and about 150 in Europe, while 60-70 are long-haul, Perks said, with the average group size being 16, though numbers range from eight to 20. Some private tours feature up to 40 walkers.
Perks, who joined the company in September 2024, has been driving a bid to widen the breadth of product.
More trips have been added to the Adagio Collection, dedicated to slower-paced travel, while further destinations have also been introduced to the Christmas range.
The expansion of the cruise product is another focus, with Celebrity Cruises and Celestyal Cruises joining Fred Olsen in the line-up of partners.
“We’re quite excited about the expansion of our cruise product,” said Perks.
Private tours have continued to be particularly attractive through the trade, he said, noting demand for “special” ways to mark landmark birthdays.
“The promotion of that kind of product seems to work quite well as often people go into a travel agency because they’re looking for something a bit different,” he added.
As the company pursues its aim of selling 10% of its trips through agents, it will increasingly seek to offer training to individual agencies.
Perks cited visits to Miles Morgan Travel and Spears Travel in Skipton as among recent successful sessions.
“We don’t have a large trade sales team, so it’s quite fortunate we can use our tour leaders [to deliver training] and they’re the ones who can bring the tours to life,” he added. “Some of them have been on 30-40 tours.”
Outlining sales trends, he said: “We’re seeing a lot of demand for UK holidays at the moment. People seem to be more confident about western Europe and the UK. We see more of a slowdown with our long-haul products.”
