Frédéric Brigand has witnessed the organized tourism industry navigate crises, technological shifts, and changing traveler expectations.
Balancing responsibility, innovation, and a commitment to human connection, he shares his vision of a sector undergoing a renaissance and the 2026 roadmap of a long-established tour operator seeking balance and purpose.
Summary
From classic package holidays to human experiences
InfosTourisme.com: After more than 30 years of experience within Visit Europe, how do you perceive the evolution of the market for tours and organized trips in Europe?
Frédéric Brigand:
In my early days, organized travel primarily met a need for safe and structured exploration. Today, expectations have evolved. Travelers want more authentic, more human experiences, and to find meaning in their trips, while still relying on the expertise and reliability of a professional.
Challenges and opportunities for organized travel in 2026
What do you think are the major challenges and opportunities for tour operators in 2026?
Frédéric Brigand:
The first challenge is adapting to the new expectations of travelers. They are more informed and more demanding. They are looking for authentic, human-scale experiences, while maintaining a high level of quality and safety. This requires us to be more creative and precise in designing our trips.
Another key issue concerns "responsibility" rather than "sustainability." This is no longer simply an argument, but a real responsibility. It involves choosing local partners and respecting local areas and communities. For tour operators, it's also an opportunity to rethink our offerings and promote lesser-known destinations, particularly in Europe.
Digital tools represent both a challenge and an opportunity. They have become indispensable, but they will never replace human expertise. In 2026, a tour operator's added value will depend more than ever on its ability to support, advise, and reassure customers.
Finally, it also presents a real opportunity to strengthen responsible partnerships with local stakeholders. It is by working hand in hand with them that we can offer coherent, responsible, and meaningful travel experiences.
For me, 2026 is an important year. It's the year of our rebirth, but above all, it invites us to remain true to our identity while adapting with agility to a constantly evolving market.
More local, more immersive, more responsible tours
European customers seem to be seeking more local, more immersive experiences. How is Visit Europe adapting to these new expectations?
Frédéric Brigand:
This evolution fully corresponds to the vision we at Visit Europe have held for several years. We believed that travel only truly comes into its own when it allows for genuine immersion in the territories, getting as close as possible to local cultures and populations.
Visit Europe 2026 aims to adapt by designing more intimate itineraries, favoring smaller groups, a more balanced pace, and in-depth exploration rather than simply accumulating sites. We pay particular attention to the selection of our local partners, with whom we wish to work long-term, to guarantee authenticity, quality, and consistency.
We want to venture beyond the usual tourist routes when appropriate, highlighting lesser-known but equally rich regions, thus contributing to more balanced and responsible tourism. Also planned for 2026 is a range of itineraries by train, e-bike, and hiking. These include Scotland train programs with city accommodations and suggested excursions, and several Corsica cycling programs offering a different way to discover this magnificent island, whether by train or on a hiking tour.
We also want to develop experiences in the coming years that foster encounters: guided tours led by local guides, local culinary discoveries, charming accommodations, and activities rooted in the daily life of the destinations. These are often the moments that travelers remember most fondly.
Finally, despite the evolution of tools and booking methods, we remain convinced that we must offer and surprise our customers. Every trip must tell a story and meet the traveler's real expectations. It is this human and committed approach that guides Visit Europe's adaptation to these new expectations today.
Post-crisis behaviors: more meaning, less volume
The post-crisis recovery has profoundly transformed purchasing behavior. What lasting trends are you observing? ?
Frédéric Brigand:
Personally, I haven't observed any major changes in booking patterns, trip length, or budget since the crisis. The real transformation lies more in travelers' expectations: they're looking for meaningful tours, with time for exploration and smaller group sizes.
They want to understand how their trip is structured and what the added value is. This demand for transparency is at the heart of our approach: that's why almost all of our 2026 programs are guaranteed for a minimum of two people, so that everyone can fully envision themselves on the trip.
Innovating without increasing costs: the economic balance
How do you manage to reconcile product innovation and cost control in a still uncertain economic context?
Frédéric Brigand:
In a still uncertain economic climate, reconciling product innovation and cost control is a balancing act. At Visit Europe, we prioritize innovations that bring real value to the traveler rather than novelty for novelty's sake.
In practical terms, we strive to enrich the customer experience with more immersive itineraries, more time for exploration, smaller groups, and reimagined services. For our train and cycling programs, this means the opportunity to discover different perspectives and sites that are less frequently visited because they are more difficult to access by coach. We also work closely with our local partners.
The relaunch of the tour operator also allows us to reduce costs in terms of the number of employees, and by pooling other costs by being backed by a tourism cooperative.
This allows for innovation with lower costs, thus enabling more responsible travel (often synonymous with small margins).
The goal is simple: to offer an experience that makes sense to the customer, while remaining responsible for the countries or regions visited.
Partnerships, the key to consistency and quality
What role do partnerships (carriers, tourist offices, destination management companies) play today in your development strategy?
Frédéric Brigand:
Today, our partnerships mainly concern our relationships with local tour operators. We are not just looking for service providers, but for true partners to co-create quality trips.
These collaborations allow us to improve the reliability of our programs while remaining closely attuned to travelers' needs. They also strengthen our ability to offer authentic itineraries and provide personalized support.
In summary, our partners are essential to combining quality, flexibility and added value, and to consolidating our position on circuits with a strong identity and small groups, like those we favor for 2026.
Responsibility at the heart of the model
Sustainability is now a central issue. How do you concretely integrate it into the design and marketing of your circuits?
Frédéric Brigand:
Sustainability, or more precisely responsibility, is now fully integrated into how we design and market our circuits. For us, it's not just talk, but translates into concrete choices.
We prioritize itineraries that allow time for exploration, limit unnecessary travel, and encourage small groups. This helps to reduce our impact, improve traveler comfort, and strengthen interactions with local communities.
We work with committed tour operators and service providers, capable of offering authentic experiences that respect the local areas.
But we also offer "trips of a lifetime." Trips that clients dream of taking once in their lives, while trying to minimize the impact even if the trip takes place on the other side of the world
B2B media and data: decision-making tools
At InfosTourisme.com, we are launching several practical tools this year (interactive reports, benchmarks, industry pages) to help professionals better understand market dynamics. How do you perceive this shift towards more analytical and data-driven B2B media?
Frédéric Brigand:
I think that more analytical and data-oriented B2B media can meet a real need in the sector: to better understand underlying trends and move beyond a purely short-term perspective dictated by current events.
Data allows us to step back, anticipate, and inform strategic thinking, provided it is properly contextualized. The value of a B2B media outlet lies in transforming data into clear, useful, and easy-to-use analyses for professionals.
But I believe that data will not replace on-the-ground experience. It becomes truly relevant when combined with the knowledge of professionals. Media outlets capable of combining figures, analyses, and feedback will, in my opinion, play a key role in helping tourism decision-makers make the right choices.
Three priorities for 2026
If you had to summarize Visit Europe's 2026 roadmap in three priorities, what would they be?
Frédéric Brigand:
Visit Europe's 2026 roadmap is part of a genuine dynamic of revival of the tour operator, around three major priorities.
The first is balance and economic stability. We are rebuilding the company on new foundations, with clear production and commitments, in order to guarantee sustainable growth.
The second priority is brand awareness and recognition. The goal is to be known and recognized as a distinctive tour operator, capable of surprising with the quality of its tours, its attention to detail, and its more responsible approach to travel.
Finally, the third priority is to grow in a controlled manner, particularly through the acquisition and strengthening of certain key partnerships. This involves developing the business without rushing things, relying on solid partners who are aligned with our vision and quality standards.
"To offer a different kind of travel experience, without sacrificing emotion"
Finally, after all these years in the industry, what continues to fascinate you about organized tourism and travel in Europe?
Frédéric Brigand:
After all these years, what continues to fascinate me about organized tourism and travel in Europe is the ability of this profession to reinvent itself.
For Visit Europe, this renaissance means reinventing itself while remaining deeply human. Designing trips is, above all, about telling stories, creating encounters, and giving meaning to travel and its discoveries.
Europe offers exceptional cultural, historical, and human richness, often just a few hours away by train or plane. Organized tourism allows us to offer this diversity, opening doors, facilitating access to sometimes little-known regions, and providing experiences that one wouldn't have alone (while still allowing for individual travel within small, pre-formed groups). We haven't abandoned our "solo" travel options.
It is also an opportunity to open the doors to other horizons, by discovering more distant destinations through our Visit Orient production, with the same requirement for meaning, quality and support.
What continues to motivate me is the role of the professional: to guide, explain, reassure, and surprise. In a world where everything seems accessible online, I remain convinced that expertise, human connection, and attention to detail make all the difference. And I have a very strong desire to offer travelers a different kind of experience. To offer and surprise them.
In conclusion, I hope that Visit Europe will play a full role in the transition to more responsible tourism. This requires concrete choices in the design of our trips: more balanced itineraries, smaller group sizes, time to understand the regions, and sustainable partnerships with local stakeholders.
Our responsibility also includes education: explaining our choices, providing transparency on how trips are designed, and helping travelers make informed decisions. The tourism of tomorrow must be more conscious, more transparent, and more respectful, without sacrificing emotion or discovery.
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