Collette recently announced that its 2026 travel season will comprise over 170 tours globally, including 20 new itineraries. The tour company also debuted a new tagline: “By Travellers. For Travellers.” LATTE has since caught up with Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, President and CEO of Collette – only the fourth leader in the company’s 108-year-history – to learn more about the brand’s evolution.
Most notable was a renewed focus around the tagline. This, said Leibl-Cote, “leans into our philosophy for how we design our itineraries all over the globe. A lot of guided tour companies use DMCs and third parties; we actually have a team of people that live all over the world that are employed by Collette, who are designing itineraries, living in destination.”
These in-destination travel designers are the key to the company’s success, according to Leibl-Cote. They spend their time discovering hidden gems and local businesses that become integral to each itinerary offered by Collette.
“You have to kind of go where the masses are a little bit because people buy because they think they want the Colosseum,” explained Leibl-Cote, “but it’s those hidden gems and those things along the way that we pepper in that [travelers] wouldn’t have access to if they were to do it on their own” that make the difference. She added, “It’s really about going deep in destination.”
A Focus on Small Groups
To that end, Collette’s small-group tours – which have an average of 19 guests and a maximum of 24 – are “for sure” the company’s fastest-growing segment.
With a smaller group, you have more flexibility – in where you travel to, how you travel, where you stay, and just about every other component of the trip. They offer, said Leibl-Cote, “something a little bit more unique.” As she put it: “When you have bigger groups, you’re forced, many times, into ‘OK we’re going to stay in Paris, but we are limited to the hotels [we can stay in],’ so you have to go to the bigger ones. With the small group, you really can select everything within the itinerary much differently—as you should.”
She added, “There’s just a lot of value that the smaller group brings.”
As far as the top draws for Collete, Leibl-Cote said the “three I’s” – Italy, Ireland and Iceland – are always top of mind. Japan, too, has “just been booming” – so much so that Collette added another small-group exploration there for 2026. This “Journey Through the Heart of Japan” tour includes the top sites in Tokyo and Osaka but also includes a private experience with retired sumo wrestlers, taiko drum lessons and others.
South Africa and Victoria Falls, Scandinavia and the Northern Lights, and Morocco are popular, too.
Sustainability and Impact Moments
On the sustainability front, Leibl-Cote said Collette does a lot to try and spread guests out – both geographically and throughout the year – to help prevent overtourism. She adds that a big part of this effort is educating travellers, letting them know they can visit marquee destinations in the shoulder or offseason and still have great weather and fewer other travellers – making for an even better experience.
“We have Impact Moments on every explorations tour that we do,” she added, which could include meeting a local farmer and learning from them or supporting local businesses. “It’s really important to us to weave those in. We actually, on our Corporate Citizenship team, have individuals that work directly with our tour designers to understand the tour flow, what pace looks like, so they can do research as to who are some of the partners in-destination that we can potentially incorporate into the tour so we can support local initiatives, as well.”
Said Leibl-Cote, “That’s the beauty of having them [tour designers] in destination.”
Top Travel Trends
As for what’s driving business, she told LATTE.: “Wellness, for sure. Food and wine, definitely … multi-gen is another one that we’ve seen,” especially as it relates to milestone/celebration travel. Additionally, “luxury has been something travellers are really leaning into,” Leibl-Cote said.
Given that luxury is trending and small-group tours being Collette’s most popular offering now, is it possible the company leans into even-smaller group tours? The short answer, Leibl-Cote said, is “yes.” But she added, “are we making any abrupt changes right now to making it even smaller? No.”
She explained that her team is always discussing what the business should look like five years, 10 years from now, “trying to predict what the sweet spot is” – a major responsibility as a third-generation family member to lead Collette – but while such a change isn’t on the immediate horizon, Leibl-Cote added, “it’s always on the table for us.”
