Inspiring Travel changes name to ITC amid product overhaul

Parent company ITC Travel Group disbands Spectate brand and halves portfolio

Luxury operator Inspiring Travel has changed its name to ITC amidst a major overhaul of its product offering and a team restructure.

Parent company ITC Travel Group has opted to disband the Spectate brand, instead offering sport travel under the singular “powerhouse brand of ITC”, with sports enquiries still set to be channelled through experts in that field.

The move will see ITC operate as “one elevated luxury proposition, rather than pulling people, expertise and resources in different directions”, group managing director Lisa Smith told Aspire.

While Inspiring Travel and Spectate merge under the ITC brand, the company has introduced ITC Elite, which combines the previous Elite Travel Concierge and ITC Private Clients offerings, aiming to bolster the company’s proposition for ultra-high-net-worth-individuals.

Regent and Rainbow will continue to operate separately.

Smith said the move allowed the team to anchor the business on the “amazing heritage brand of ITC, which is very prestigious and well known”. She said it would make the brand’s market presence stronger among suppliers, trade partners and clients.

The move comes amid a brand refresh for ITC, a product overhaul and a team restructure. A new logo has been unveiled alongside an improved website, while the product portfolio has been downsized by almost half “to ensure the offering is as consistent and elevated as possible”.

Many promotions have been made internally, but “a small number of staff” opted to take voluntary redundancy.

Smith said: “This next chapter isn’t about becoming a different company; it’s about becoming the very best version of ITC.”

She added: “We wanted to focus on our relationships with suppliers, the trade and our clients and we’ve got this amazing heritage brand in ITC, which is very prestigious and well-known. We want to put all of our power behind one brand – ITC, rather than having Inspiring and Spectate as two brands.

“Previously we advertised sports to Spectate’s customers, and now we’ll promote sports to everyone through ITC. We have people with expertise and skills with sport, and they love selling this type of travel, so [sports] enquiries will be channelled through them. This is a smoother, more simplified way of working, rather than running two brands. Spectate has always done very well with the trade, so it’s making sure that continues through the ITC brand. By doubling down on this one brand we think we’re in a strong position.

When asked about the product offering being cut in half, Smith said: “Part of the product simplification has been to look at how do we elevate our product and our marketing. A small proportion of clients generate quite a large amount of the revenue, so we want to spend more time working closely with those people in a more personalised way.

"As a result we’re downsizing the portfolio by almost 50%. Previously 75% of our organisational effort was being taken up on low-converting, lower-performing product so we’re stripping out the noise for our staff to improve this."

As part of the team restructure, Gary Bates has been promoted to head of trade partnerships.

The operator said agents would continue to have access to the same level of expertise and support, with training and weekly trade ITC Friday 10@10 sessions.

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