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Beginning operations 10 years later than their competitor, one of the key challenges Inca Rail faces is raising awareness in the travel trade that there is more than one option to choose from on this popular route (assumed by many to be a nationalised rail operation with no freedom of choice for the consumer). Following a significant investment and rebrand in 2017, Inca Rail were able to actively raise their international profile – for the UK travel trade, this was in partnership with Tailormade Inspiration. A targeted campaign of press releases, newsletters and social media activity – backed up by sales visits and training activities for the UK trade – focused on points of difference of Inca Rail’s proposition and newest innovations.

Unique selling points we chose to focus on included Inca Rail being the only operator to offer a private train charter service to Machu Picchu (the Private Machu Picchu Train), and their longstanding commitment to responsible tourism through their special fuel compound designed to minimise carbon emissions, fully recyclable food & beverage packaging on board and ongoing support of local charity initiatives. The introduction of new products and services – a brand new panoramic train with open observation carriage for example, and the launch of an exclusive service from the heart of Cusco – enabled us to open doors again with the travel trade. Through effective communication these points of difference, combined with our experience in sales and marketing from the tour operator perspective, we were able to encourage sales and product teams to question their existing inclination to default to the mass operator, in many cases simply due to sheer habit.