Europe Express has a 35-year history of putting travel advisors first.

Founded in 1990, Europe Express is a tour operator that specializes in creating custom FIT and group travel within Europe. The company works exclusively with travel advisors, planning every aspect of a vacation—from hotels and transfers to sightseeing, ferries, and internal flights—all customized for the client.

“Our client is the travel advisor,” explained Mark Yacker, vice president of outside sales and partnerships at Europe Express. “Our job is to make the advisor’s life easy [by] helping them to impress their clients.”

Over the last year, Europe Express has seen a lot of changes. In addition to bringing back FAM trips and introducing a rewards program, the company underwent a brand refresh. Yacker told Travel Market Report that the new look and feel communicates the tour operator’s focus on immersive, self-paced travel, while the tagline, “Helping you impress,” positions the company as existing to support the trade.

“We enlisted [travel advisor] feedback before we landed on our refresh,” recalled Yacker. “We held several focus groups. We rely a lot on those advisors who are loyal partners with us, and getting their input and feedback on just about everything we do.”

This commitment to the trade is integral to the company’s overall strategy, which aims to offer high-quality and personalized European vacations at affordable rates.

“We do not take direct bookings, so we only succeed if we help the advisor succeed—that is our business model,” said Yacker.

Europe Express Brought Back FAMs—with a Twist

One of the most exciting developments at Europe Express has been the return of its FAM program. This year, Europe Express will be hosting five FAM trips of varying styles, and aims to run six in 2026.

Creating the program has required some trial and error: A major hurdle for the FIT specialists is that the traditional FAM structure is, by its very nature, unlike a true customized travel experience. How does such a company accurately demonstrate their trip experience to a group of travel advisors when the itineraries aren’t meant to be one-size-fits-all group experiences?

“With FAM trips, you’re essentially running a coach tour. You’re putting 20 advisors into a coach. You’re moving them from point to point. You’re showing them the experiences their clients get. That’s guided travel, and it’s not what we offer,” explained Yacker.

Europe Express reevaluated how it designed and operated its past FAM trips, and has been experimenting with different formats to overcome this challenge.

One strategy is to operate what Yacker referred to as “hub and spoke” FAM trips. These involve bringing the group of travel advisors together initially, but then breaking them off into smaller groups based on interests.

“Everyone will be together for some of the time, but then on the day-to-day, we’re gonna break out into smaller groups and do different activities and excursions with them. So it’s more along the lines of what their client would get,” explained Yacker.

Europe Express is also trying out shorter FAM itineraries with the option for travel advisors to add-on personalized extensions, for that truly tailor-made experience.

“We’re running some shorter itineraries, where the group will be together for the core trip, but then we’re gonna offer deep discounts on post-FAM extensions,” he said. “So the travel advisor can truly experience the actual FIT that their clients are going to have.”

Europe Express’ New Rewards Program

Europe Express also launched a travel advisor rewards program a couple of months back. Unlike the FAM initiative, the rewards program is brand-new to the company.

“This is something that the company has never had, so we put a lot of time and effort again speaking with advisors to understand what was important to them,” said Yacker.

Dubbed Passport to Perks, the program rewards travel advisors with credits for every dollar booked. Bookings don’t need to be registered, and advisors are automatically entered into the program. The credits advisors earn can then be redeemed for travel credits or cash.

“We want [advisors] to experience the destination and experience Europe express, so the travel credits are worth double, but we recognize not everybody’s going to be able to travel. So we did want to offer up that cash option for them,” Yacker explained.

Passport to Perks, which launched in March, is a tiered system based on bookings within the calendar year. As advisors work their way through the tiers, they unlock more incentives, such as FAM invitations, a priority phone line, and early access to new hotels and excursions. The credits do expire, but not until the end of the following calendar year.

Europe Express built an advisor dashboard where advisors can see their bookings and rewards progress easily. Yacker encourages advisors who have worked with the company in the past to log in and check their account status: “See what your balance is. If you’ve booked with us, you’ve likely already earned credits.”

The company also debuted advisor appreciation trips last year. Unlike FAMs, these trips are fully covered by the tour operator (including flights) and are designed to recognize top performers.

“We felt we could do a better job appreciating those loyal partners who book with us year after year and are driving good volumes,” said Yacker.

For the first trip, Yacker hosted 10 travel advisors in Greece; the top seven sellers won a spot, and the remaining three were determined by draw. For the upcoming 2025 trip in October, Europe Express is opening more spots for emerging advisors.

“We save a nice number of seats for those who are booking the most. But there’s also some seats in there for those that have shown the most growth. They may be a lower-level producer, but they’re really on the rise, and we want to recognize that as well,” he explained.

Supporting the Trade in Unexpected Ways

Europe Express offers similar support as many established tour operators: webinars (live and recorded), a resource library, and various content tools like suggested itineraries. The company also provides 24/7 in-destination support for clients while they’re traveling to offer travel advisors peace of mind.

Yacker said the company is also pursuing less conventional strategies to meaningfully engage travel advisors.

For example, the travel company has partnered with Secret Food Tours, a partner the company uses in Europe, to give travel advisors in the U.S. a taste of the Europe Express experience.

“The goal is to do things that tie in with what we do for the advisors’ clients in Europe,” he explained. “We use [Secret Food Tours] to get people out in their own backyard and experience restaurants that they didn’t even know were there, and expressed to them that this is the kind of thing we do for your clients in destination.”

Yacker told TMR that he’s seen a lot of growth in the company’s group bookings. Europe Express has a dedicated department for helping travel advisors book private groups, whether that’s affinity groups like schools or sports teams, or family trips.

To help support the trade, Europe Express is running a FAM this year exclusively for travel advisors who focus on groups. The trip is heading to Northern Italy and will feature a customized itinerary themed to cuisine.

“We believe this is a people business,” said Yacker. “This is about relationships. I encourage people to use the expertise of our specialists and let them do the hard work of creating the right trip for your client.”