The 25-year-old UK-based business launched into Australia last month with the promise of 20-25-guest escorted tours across destinations such as Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
All itineraries are guaranteed departures and include daily breakfast and select meals, experiences and accommodation, as well as a Just You Holiday Director to guide the way.
Just You made its first Australian hire last month, with Melbourne-based Natalie Chappell joining as Senior Key Account Manager.
Sales Director Tom Morgan describes the business as “a safety blanket” for solo travellers, offering them peace of mind when they venture overseas on their own.
“Sometimes with touring holidays, where there isn’t a solo-specific product, you can be the only solo person in a group of couples, and then you feel like you’re third-wheeling everybody or you feel a little bit awkward,” he told travelBulletin.
“The increase in solo travel is because people feel more empowered to travel on their own than 20 years ago and companies like ourselves actually give people that confidence to take that step.”
Here, Morgan chats with travelBulletin about why now was the right time for the G-Adventures-owned business to finally launch in Australia and the unique needs of solo travellers.
TD: Why is now the right time to expand into Australia?
TM: About 18 months ago, we relaunched in Canada. Then, Managing Director Adam Kemp and I came out to Australia last year to meet with some product managers to get a sense of how the product might go down here, and from speaking to everyone, everyone was really excited.
We haven’t really seen another product out here in Australia that has the breadth of tours just for solo travellers. We’ve got over 100 different itineraries.
All our tours are English-speaking only, and we’re selling to UK, Canadians and now Australians. For us, getting the right mix of people on the solo tour is really important. People travel to meet other people and make friends, and we didn’t want to go into a country where we would need to speak multiple languages because that makes it much more challenging. We feel like there’s definitely a shared culture between those three countries…andpeople’s attitudes towards travelling are very similar.
We’ve also seen Australians travel really, really well. Compared to other countries, there’s a lot more confidence over here. People generally go away for slightly longer periods of time, so we felt like we had a great opportunity to come to a market that aligned with our customer demographic with similar culture and values – and we could be first to market with this kind of product and really put a stamp on it.
TD: What are some of solo travellers’ unique needs?
TM: I think what they need and what we offer is that peace of mind for them. There are a few things we do to make our holidays specific for solo travellers.
Every customer gets a double room for sole occupancy – they’ve got a twin or double room. Sometimes, if you book a single room at a hotel, you get a half-size room with a single bed. That’s not the case for our customers.
The holiday directors we use on our trips are all trained to look after solo specifically. They’re trained to make sure that if a particular customer is more nervous or it’s their first time travelling [alone], they’re given a bit more care and attention to help integrate them into the group to make sure they’re okay.
Pretty much everything is included in the price. There are no single supplements, so the price [travellers] see is the price they get. We have a couple of optional extras, but will always have their accommodation and excursions included.
We also design things such as the meals around solo travellers. For the first few days of the trip, we have welcome drinks…and we normally try to include more meals in the front half [of the itinerary together]. We generally try to keep the group together for the first few days so they can meet other travellers and get to know each other. If there’s free time, that usually takes place later on…and they often still like to stick together.
It’s little things like that that we believe is what most of our travellers want.
TD: If you had any advice for travel agents in terms of catering to solo travellers, what advice would you give them?
TM: Solo is constantly growing. As the population continues to get older, it’s going to carry on being a growing part of the market and it’s something agents shouldn’t ignore.
From my point of view, it is a group of people who not just travel well, but I’d also say they’re quicker at making booking decisions. Because they don’t have to consult with someone else, we often see our solo travellers book a lot closer to departure than couples do.
We have another brand in the UK called Travelsphere which is designed for couples, and on average, our [solo] customers book about two months closer to departure [than they do].
Keep in mind those solo travellers are ready to go, but you need to make sure they’re aware that you cater for them, because often they can feel like they’re a bit penalised. There are a lot of companies that charge quite significant single supplements, and they’re almost viewed as afterthoughts, but you can actually take a real big chunk of the market just from solo travellers.
TD: What’s on the horizon for Just You in 2026?
TM: This first year for us is really about establishing ourselves in the market. We want to get the name out there. We have brochures available for agents to order and Natalie’s going to do training, and she’s available for people to contact if they want to learn more about the brand.
These first few months are about making agents aware of the product. We’re really conscious that travel agents have got hundreds of brands that they need to know about, and we’re not naive enough to think that just because we’re a solo player that’s come in, and there aren’t too many [brands] similar to us that people will automatically know us.
Education is going to be really key for us. We aren’t quite committed to anything, but we’re also looking at doing some famils as well, so we can get some agents out there. Also, for the first few months, we want to take feedback from agents about the product, what they like and things that we can improve on for the market here.
We’re definitely not naive enough to think that what we’ve done successfully in the UK and Canada will necessarily translate instantly for here. We’re always open to feedback from agents and see how we can be easy to work with.
As a travel agent, the most important thing when booking a company is working with someone that’s really easy to deal with, they’re reliable and your customers are going to have a great experience when they go away. That’s something we believe we can offer but we need to prove that, so we want to be able to get in front of people and show them.
We are definitely committed to the Australian market like we wouldn’t have come here if we didn’t think there was a real opportunity here, and we’re definitely here for the long-term.
