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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Railbookers CEO and president Frank Marini opened the company\u2019s conference in Vancouver this morning with a simple message: \u201cNothing is slowing down demand.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s a hotel upgrade or an extra experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Luxury is on an even steeper trajectory, up 123 per cent this year, but Marini warned the industry against defining it for clients.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLuxury\u2019s personal. It\u2019s not what we define as luxury. It\u2019s how the customer perceives it,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He split the category into \u201clittle luxury\u201d (a private transfer, a first-class rail upgrade or a skip-the-line pass) and \u201cbig luxury\u201d, 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. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTime is the ultimate luxury,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Baby boomers and Gen X, the so-called \u201csilver tsunami\u201d, 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWho puts their phone number in unless you\u2019re serious?\u201d Marini asked.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Disruption support was tested this year when low water levels cancelled river cruises across Europe, with passengers moved onto the company\u2019s Rhine by Rail and Danube by Rail itineraries. All up, Railbookers has handled more than 3,200 rail disruptions in 2026.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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 \u201cdocument parties\u201d to walk first-time rail travellers through tickets, stations and luggage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like a cruise line,\u201d Marini said. \u201cIs that a German ticket, a Swiss ticket, an Italian ticket? How does that work? \u2026 We want the human in the loop.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The company\u2019s 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s 250th anniversary and \u201cmeteoric\u201d national parks growth.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Luxury is now filtering through the whole range, he said. Private and exclusive experiences grew 24 per cent, while bookings at the company\u2019s top-tier five-star hotels grew more than 90 per cent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Channel said China has around two-thirds of the world\u2019s high-speed rail network, more than 50,000 kilometres, and it is still growing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n South Korea also joins the line-up as part of a wider Asia expansion, with rail itineraries taking in Seoul and Busan.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sage outlined his \u201cthree pillars\u201d: accessible facilities, customer service (including a booking process that works), and detailed information, complete with photos and measurements.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the best accessible feature of the journey [that travellers remember]. It\u2019s the worst,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He urged advisers not to mistake low enquiry numbers for low demand. Travellers with disability won\u2019t take a risk on a company that doesn\u2019t market itself as accessible, he said, and getting it right often wins the whole multigenerational group, not just one booking.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019 hotels have instead been vetted property by property, with many four- and five-star options in historic city centres.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As for rail versus flying, there\u2019s 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI would rather do rail travel than any first-class air,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And the field is wide open. \u201cI have yet to see any brand in travel promote their accessibility,\u201d Sage said. \u201cNo hotel chain, no destination, no cruise line, no airport, no airline.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Railbookers is heading into 2027 with bookings running 35 per cent ahead and its travel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Nothing is slowing down demand\u2019<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
China back on the tracks<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Andrew-Channell-at-Railbookers-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Andrew-Channell-at-Railbookers-scaled.jpg\")
Accessible rail goes mainstream<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Accessible](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/accessible-travel-expert-John-Sage-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"Accessible](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/accessible-travel-expert-John-Sage-scaled.jpg\")