ID Travel Group is taking steps to make hotel and resort bookings from its portfolio more convenient for Australian clients by offering Australian Dollar pricing, LATTE can exclusively reveal. The currency initiative, along with opening up the product of Island Escapes to the US market in US dollars, is expected in the second half of 2025 as the business prepares to integrate the backend reservation platform of its most recent acquisition.
Speaking with LATTE from New York ahead of this week roadshow in Australia and New Zealand, Laurie Palumbo, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of ID Travel Group, also hinted that future growth for the company will next likely be in coastal regions of Spain and Portugal, and network expansion may come from the Middle East market.
This week’s ANZ showcase has been the most subscribed to attend by qualified advisors and owners in ID Travel Group’s history. It has included seven events, spread across Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland (today) – with dual events hosted in Melbourne and Sydney.
Palumbo said booking growth for ID Travel Group from the ANZ market over the past year is up double-digits, for both its historical core program and its recently acquired Melbourne-based ‘sun and sand’ South Pacific specialist, Island Escapes.
“Business has been excellent and performing very, very well for both companies,” she told LATTE from New York.
“We’re really very pleased with the cross over between the companies. It’s helped with the clients who are familiar with ID now reaching out to Island Escapes, and vice versa. We were hoping that would happen, and it is. It’s been fabulous,” she said.
ID Travel Group’s program comprises a portfolio of hand-picked world-class hotels, resorts and villas across Southern Europe, the Middle East, Maldives and the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, French Polynesia, Central America, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, Caribbean, the USA and Hawaii. In recent years, the firm has expanded into Africa offering customised safaris throughout Africa under ID’s brand ID Vayeni Africa. Last year saw growth in the UK/Europe with the addition of CARIBTOURS and down under through Island Escapes.
“Island Escapes’ business has traditionally been Australian based. We have some clients in Australia that previously may have not been working with them, and vice versa, so the acquisition of Island Escapes expands our reach. And that was the whole principal – to expand our footprint in Australia by having a company so well-established and armed with experts in the market of what we do,” Palumbo said.
“We had a modest number of hotels in Fiji as the destination is a small piece of our greater business, so the acquisition of Island Escapes gives us more product that doesn’t greatly overlap with what we were already doing.”
Quizzed if the product of Island Escapes would be blended into that of ID, Palumbo was adamant the businesses will remain separate.
“We won’t cross over Island Escapes’ product to the US yet. That’ll happen when we migrate to the same computer system. Eventually, the big picture would be that Island Escape will be a specialist in the US for Fiji and the South Pacific.”
That step will come later this year following the migration of all businesses, including CARIBTOURS, to the one booking system. Palumbo said the transition is likely to occur in 6-8 months time.
Island Escapes acquisition
On the topic of the takeover of Island Escapes, Palumbo said the same management team continues to operate the business, with Margi and Marilyn remaining as partners.
“Island Escapes will be an our main company in Australia. That’s going to gives us the ability to take AUD for Island Destinations product as soon as we get on the new system.
“Island Destinations will remain with it’s product and Island Escapes will remain specialists is the South Pacific – they’ve been in business for over 20 years and are so well known, we don’t want to dilute that in any way.”
An added benefit of the takeover has also seen Island Escapes join Signature Travel Network as a preferred partner, which ID Travel Group has been aligned with for many years. Both companies are also preferred with Virtuoso.
Palumbo also revealed to LATTE that travel partners of Island Escapes can look forward to expanded product in this region, with another big contract in the works that will likely be integrated concurrently with the system amalgamation.
“The ink hasn’t dried on the contract but we will be expanding the product in the South Pacific for Island Escapes,” she teased.
All-Inclusive thirst
From the Oceania region, ID Travel Group has noticed a strong uptick in its all-inclusive product – IDx – in the past few seasons.
“Years ago, our partners down under weren’t booking anything in the program, but in the past year or two, the all-inclusive market has been growing. Traditionally, Australian travellers like to go out and dine offsite, but now they are seeing the value of all-inclusive. Especially with the US dollar being so strong, we’re seeing a swing towards all-inclusive, and Mexico specifically. All-inclusive represents very good value,” she added.
That program will launch with CARIBTOURS in the next month or two.
Speaking of the CARIBTOURS’ acquisition, Palumbo told LATTE initial negotiations with that business began prior to the COVID pandemic in 2019, but needed to be put on hold for several years before the sale closed a year ago.
CARIBTOURS has been in business for over 40 years. That merger was in line with ID’s vision to have a global reach, not just be limited to one part of the world.
“We’re present now in Australia, the UK, US and Africa,” Palumbo boasted.
Where next?
With business expansion in the UK (into Europe) and Australia (into the South Pacific), it leads to the question of where next? Is the booming high-end Middle Eastern market ripe for ID Travel Group?
“Yes, we’ve been talking about it every day,” Palumbo said. “I don’t think we’re quite ready for it yet but it is definitely on the horizon. It’s on the roadmap.”
“We’re always looking to expand where we can add value. I like anything sun and sand. We might start looking at some areas of Spain and Portugal… it’s down the road. CaribTours does more Europe than we do, so little by little, when we’re on the same system, we’ll be able to add more product for the US and see how it goes.”
What about cruising?
With ID Travel Group all about ‘sun and sand’, it begs the question if cruise holidays may also be a potential entry point for the company. But Palumbo was frank in her assessment.
“I couldn’t add any value there. Everyone has all their contracts and deals with all the consortia so there’s really nothing we would be able to bring to the table. So we’re going to stay away from that right now,” she stated.
