kabarsula Railbookers tips bumper 2027 as China returns and accessible rail rolls out  bandar SLOT INDONESIA

Railbookers is heading into 2027 with bookings running 35 per cent ahead and its travel adviser business up 44 per cent, as the rail specialist bets big on human service, luxury and two major product moves: the return of China and a new accessible travel range. Travel Weekly Editor at large Nancy Hromin reports from Vancouver. 

‘Nothing is slowing down demand’ 

Railbookers CEO and president Frank Marini opened the company’s conference in Vancouver this morning with a simple message: “Nothing is slowing down demand.” 

After a year in which the business grew 25 per cent, Marini said the leadership team had drawn six lessons from 2026, and most of them land squarely with advisers. 

The first is the rise of independent travel. Rail might be the vehicle, he said, but what clients really want is the freedom to shape their own trip, with 94 per cent wanting a well-planned itinerary they can still tweak, whether that’s a hotel upgrade or an extra experience. 

Luxury is on an even steeper trajectory, up 123 per cent this year, but Marini warned the industry against defining it for clients. 

“Luxury’s personal. It’s not what we define as luxury. It’s how the customer perceives it,” he said. 

He split the category into “little luxury” (a private transfer, a first-class rail upgrade or a skip-the-line pass) and “big luxury”, such as a suite on a legendary train, noting 80 per cent of high-net-worth travellers expect to shift spending towards experiences over things.

“Time is the ultimate luxury,” he said. 

Baby boomers and Gen X, the so-called “silver tsunami”, are leading growth, and so is the appetite for a real person on the end of the phone, even as AI reshapes trip research. Railbookers has fielded 333,000 calls this year, plus 105,000 call-back requests through its website. 

“Who puts their phone number in unless you’re serious?” Marini asked. 

Disruption support was tested this year when low water levels cancelled river cruises across Europe, with passengers moved onto the company’s Rhine by Rail and Danube by Rail itineraries. All up, Railbookers has handled more than 3,200 rail disruptions in 2026. 

For advisers, the big 2027 news is support. A new concierge team will work as an in-house DMC, staying with clients from deposit to departure, reconfirming arrangements and running virtual “document parties” to walk first-time rail travellers through tickets, stations and luggage. 

“It’s not like a cruise line,” Marini said. “Is that a German ticket, a Swiss ticket, an Italian ticket? How does that work? … We want the human in the loop.” 

The company’s in-house AI knowledge base, FastTracks, continues to evolve, capturing around 200 questions a day from calls so every staff member can answer like a rail expert. 

Adviser education is booming too. The number of preferred advisers taking discounted personal and family trips jumped 52 per cent this year, and those agents went on to generate 70 per cent more revenue. A new program of 10 famils covering Italy, Switzerland, the Canadian Rockies, Japan, Spain, Eastern Europe and Edinburgh-London-Paris drew 6,370 applications within 24 hours. 

China back on the tracks 

Senior vice president of product Andrew Channel said 2026 delivered the return of Japan, new Southeast Asian product including Vietnam, Famous Rivers by Rail, and a record year for North America on the back of America’s 250th anniversary and “meteoric” national parks growth. 

Luxury is now filtering through the whole range, he said. Private and exclusive experiences grew 24 per cent, while bookings at the company’s top-tier five-star hotels grew more than 90 per cent. 

The headline for 2027 is China, which returns with itineraries across eight destinations including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, pairing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors with culinary and cultural experiences. 

Channel said China has around two-thirds of the world’s high-speed rail network, more than 50,000 kilometres, and it is still growing. 

South Korea also joins the line-up as part of a wider Asia expansion, with rail itineraries taking in Seoul and Busan. 

Accessible rail goes mainstream 

Channel then unveiled what may be the most significant launch: accessible rail travel. Railbookers has quietly supported travellers with access needs for years, notably through its Amtrak Vacations brand, but sees a largely untapped market. 

It has partnered with accessible travel expert John Sage, a wheelchair user with almost 20 years in the field, on five new itineraries across Italy, Paris, the Netherlands and beyond, designed so advisers make one call and hand over the planning and logistics. 

Sage outlined his “three pillars”: accessible facilities, customer service (including a booking process that works), and detailed information, complete with photos and measurements. 

“It’s not the best accessible feature of the journey [that travellers remember]. It’s the worst,” he said. 

He urged advisers not to mistake low enquiry numbers for low demand. Travellers with disability won’t take a risk on a company that doesn’t market itself as accessible, he said, and getting it right often wins the whole multigenerational group, not just one booking. 

Nor does a big brand guarantee access. In his own room at the conference hotel, Sage said, the shower bench had been fitted on the wrong wall, leaving the controls out of reach. Railbookers’ hotels have instead been vetted property by property, with many four- and five-star options in historic city centres. 

As for rail versus flying, there’s no contest: arrive 30 to 45 minutes ahead, board via a lift, stay in his own wheelchair, use a large bathroom and watch the scenery. 

“I would rather do rail travel than any first-class air,” he said. 

And the field is wide open. “I have yet to see any brand in travel promote their accessibility,” Sage said. “No hotel chain, no destination, no cruise line, no airport, no airline.”