What’s it like to run a travel company right now?
It’s Mat here, co-founder of Leatherback Travel, the team behind Fencox.
This is our entire Australian team – and that’s me in the centre, in the blue shirt:
Last year I wrote to you to give you an update on the business.
A year has gone by since then and wowsers… I think the pundits were right.
The post-Covid World is definitely ‘different’, I think we can all agree?
People Ask: What’s It Like to Run a Travel Company Right Now?
This is an interesting question.
Right now I’ve got the previous year’s update in front of me, and in that email, I was referring to multiple different events that hogged the headlines.
It seems like 2026 is more of the same.
So, for the people who want to wait until the world settles down, I need to be direct with you – this is the new world we live in.
Instead of quitting travel for a while – something I vowed to myself that I will never, ever do, after losing two years to Covid – it’s best to focus on what can be done!
The way I see it is this:
- We sell travel
- You love travelling
So you must agree, it’s a perfect match!
(Sometimes I feel like the owner of a chocolate factory, and my job is to tell the chocolate lovers out there that despite headlines about cacao supply, we’re open for business.)
So let me share some of the more positive news happening, as there is a bunch that maybe you’re not aware of, such as Qantas adding huge amounts of seats into Europe.
One Thing We’ve Learned About You
Now that we’ve been doing this a while, a consistent pattern has emerged –
You are much more resilient, educated and intelligent than the average tour company guest.
Right now, we’ve got trips going all over the world – and have seen some, but very few cancellations. Most that did cancel just couldn’t find alternative flights. However, if this is you… just know that there are some really great options out there that travel agents have access to. We’ve been surprised.
To all those who put in the effort and expense to change their flights to join one of our groups – thank you.
As we say, we’re in the business of serving hard core travellers, so we do everything we can to avoid cancelling trips.
So we spend lots of time taking the pulse of our guests to get your opinions, and while there is a range, the large majority of you have this attitude:
“There’s no way I’m going to give up the trip I worked so hard for!”
A group of Patchies doing the ‘make a silly move’ photo in Morocco
Our Egypt-Jordan trip dropped the ‘Jordan’ bit at the last minute, so we ended up with a smaller group. But we’ve still got three amazing Patchies going around Egypt.
Our Magnificent Rail Silk Road group exploring the metro system of Tashkent, Uzbekistan – there was no way they were going to miss it!
Do You Like Statistics?
Thank you to all those who made 2025 so great for us…
Across our different brands:
- 1,311 people joined us across 129 trips. This is the first time we reached that magical 1,000 person milestone – in 2024, we took 919 of you.
- Even when the world is turbulent, you’re sticking with us. We already have 443 bookings so far in 2026, which is up roughly 14% on last year.
Last year, in this message, it wasn’t all positive movement. I had to come clean that our feedback ratings had dropped slightly on 2024, as of the mid-point of 2025.
But, I’ve got some good news – we turned that around!
Many of you will know that we call as many people as time permits when a trip has finished, and we ask them for a rating out of 5.
Although in 2025 this score had dipped initially, it actually increased as the year went on.
And, after a lot of work – and a few very honest conversations – we turned it around. And even better, we ended up equalling our previous record.
Result?
The median score we achieved was our joint best ever – 4.70 in 2025, up from 4.66 in 2024.
And so far this 2026, we’re up to 4.81.
Not bad… We’re definitely celebrating.
So, What Causes Things to Go Wrong On Trips?
Last year, I got flooded with responses to this blog. Thank you!
And as part of that, people wanted to make sure Rebeca and myself (co-founders of this company) had seen the feedback that had come through.
And the answer is yes.
I do look at every single piece of feedback that we get.
So, you can be sure that if you have had a call with a team member about a trip, I have read that feedback.
In fact, all of us listen to your calls, every single week.
You know how the thing says ‘your call may be used for quality or training purposes?’ Well, in our case, it’s actually true. Every single person at the company – no matter their role type – is required to listen to your calls at least once a week.
If you’re curious, the top three things that cause trips to get a lower average rating are:
-
- Group Issues – Sometimes, the group dynamic doesn’t click. Not everyone likes each other all the time.
- Guide Issues – We get the guide choice wrong sometimes. And other times, even a normally excellent guide just doesn’t have a great trip. We’ve had trip leaders get fantastic ratings for years and then have a trip where the group just doesn’t gel with them. It happens, but we always try to take the feedback and convert it into improved training.
- We Make Mistakes – This is a big category, but the biggest cause of self-inflicted mistakes is when we need to change an itinerary due to unavoidable reasons. THEN the mistake comes – perhaps we don’t communicate it well or we get the logistics wrong in the last minute reorganisation of the trip.
(Obviously, I’m simplifying things a little bit here for the sake of brevity.)
Last year, it became clear from reading some of your responses that while it’s all good and wonderful that the typical trip runs very smoothly, it doesn’t give you much comfort if you were on one of the trips that was more of a 3.5 out of 5.
I definitely received that message, which is why we decided to aim even higher for a median trip rating of 4.8 this year.
What Else is Happening
We’ve started local offices in Central Asia and in the Balkans…
As you can see, the ratio of men to women is high, but this is one of the reasons we set up a local office – so that we can encourage women to enter the industry and provide training for them. So, keep an eye out for that!
Trips You Should Be Paying Attention To….
🆕 NEW TRIPS & NEW FAVES
📍Day Mexico Indigenous Cultural Adventure 18 Days
📅 10 – 27 July 2026
💰 $13,574 AUD ($754 per day)
📍Greece Odyssey: Hinterland & Aegean – 12 Days
📅 14 – 25 September 2026
💰 $9,865 AUD ($822 per day)
📍Cuba Beyond the Classics – 15 Days
📅 28 October – 11 November 2026
💰 $7,958 AUD ($531 per day)
🎎ASIAN ADVENTURES
📍Japan Cultural Rail Adventure – 16 Days
📅 11 – 26 October 2026
💰 $13,298 AUD ($831 per day)
📍Sri Lanka: A Buddhism-Inspired Culture – 16 Days
📅 16 – 31 October 2026
💰 $6,882 AUD ($430 per day)
📍Cambodia: Ancient Khmer Heritage – 12 Days
📅 22 November – 3 December 2026
💰 $5,746 AUD ($479 per day)
📍Laos: Off the Mekong Trails Adventure – 12 Days
📅 8 – 19 November 2026
💰 $5,996 AUD ($500 per day)
📍Fiji Village Christmas Adventure – 10 Days
📅 23 December 2026 – 2 January 2027
💰$7,882 AUD ($788 per day)
📍Swiss Christmastime Rail Adventure – 14 Days
📅 22 December 2026 – 4 January 2027
💰$15,996 AUD ($1143 per day)
Mat.