Globus Introduces à la carte Style of Touring with its Cosmos Lite: For the past two years the INBOUND Report, as well as its Receptive Tour Operator (RTO) Summit speakers, has talked about the emergence of a new kind of tour product that is neither FIT (Fully Independent Travel) or GIT (Group Inclusive Travel), but is an amalgam—a hybrid—of the two: PIT, or Partially Independent Travel.
The PIT model suggests that a tour provide some essentials of both the FIT and GIT models. There is a package, to be sure, but one that allows the customer freedom to tour on his or her own between pickups and drop offs, and to have options instead of a wire-to-wire itinerary in which the entire group keeps to the same timetable.
Last week, the Globus family of travel brands, through its Cosmos label (it is promoted as “affordable touring” product) introduced Cosmos Lite, which it bills as “the world’s first first à la carte escorted tour style.”
What it Offers: The 2019 Cosmos Lite vacation product comprises 10 European packages that include accommodations, daily breakfast and transportation between cities with a professional tour guide.
All excursions are separate, giving travelers the option to purchase only the tours and activities that they find interesting, or none at all.
As an example of exactly what the price point for the new product Cosmos Lite listed the 10 new European holidays for Canadian consumers. Cost of the escorted tours listed below do not include air fare:
—Spanish City Explorer (9 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
—Spanish Heritage Explorer (8 days, priced from Cdn$929)
—Portugal Explorer (7 days, priced from Cdn$989)
—Italian Explorer (8 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
—Northern Italy Explorer (8 days priced from Cdn$1,189)
—Veneto Explorer (7 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
—Danube Explorer (8 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
—England Explorer (7 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
—Ireland Explorer (7 days, priced from Cdn$1,129)
—Scotland Explorer (7 days, priced from Cdn$1,189)
