Exoticca roadshow in T.O. sees biggest turnout yet, group booking platform unveiled

Exoticca returned to Toronto for its annual Fall Fling road show Tuesday night (Sept. 23) with its biggest turnout yet of curious travel advisors eager to learn what all the buzz is about for the company.

About 500 attended the event at The Old Mill, where Barcelona-based Exoticca explained its value proposition as guests enjoyed dinner.

It was the first stop on a 25-stop Canadian tour for the company, with them next moving to Ottawa, then Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, and finishing it off in Vancouver.

“This is our flagship event of the year,” Chief Growth Officer Alberto Constans told PAX. “Our main goal, first of all, is to introduce Exoticca to those travel agents who are new.”

Exoticca first launched in Canada in 2019 and Constans said it has seen tremendous growth since then, with Canada becoming one of its top performing and fastest growing markets.

He said the company has grown 75 per cent in Canada year-over-year, despite instability in demand earlier in 2025 as U.S. tariffs were announced.

“That is positioning us as probably the fastest-growing tour operator in the country,” he said. “Our intention is to continue building the brand in Canada and we want to lead the Canadian market.”

The company is now doubling its marketing investment in Canada with a new commercial.

Constans said Exoticca is currently the number one tour operator in Canada in terms of brand consideration, with over 65 per cent brand awareness among Canadians.

New group booking platform

The company took the event as an opportunity to announce its new group booking platform.

Constans said that while they are very well known for the simple booking tool for individuals, “it gets more complicated when you want to do a group booking.”

The new group booking platform should launch by the end of the year, he said.

Exoticca offers tours in about 70 countries across the world, with more offerings added regularly and expanding into more niche territory, such as Uganda, Madagascar and Kazakhstan.

Constans, though, said their top selling destination for Canada is Portugal, which is due to its affordability, the English-speaking talented tour guides there, and its connectivity, with all major airports flying there.

He highlighted that TAP Air Portugal was at the event and an important partner for them.

Besides Portugal, Constans said Italy and Greece also do very well among Canadians, along with Japan given the yen’s depreciation and its excellent connectivity as well.

Exoticca’s competitive advantage are its prices, which constantly outmatch its competition, Constans said, as well as its simplicity of booking.

The reason they can offer lower prices is due to their supply chain, he explained, which he calls their “secret sauce.”

“It’s very difficult to replicate what we have because really the way we connect with suppliers, destinations and airlines takes a lot of years to build,” Constans said. “Our price point is so incredibly competitive because of the way we manage the supply chain.”

Exoticca is opening its services to more countries, which Constans says matters for Canadian travel agents because they will receive commission for bookings even made outside of Canada.

“So if they can post on Facebook and there’s a customer that sees that in Australia, they can book and they get the commission of that booking out of Australia,” Constans said. “We help these travel agents beyond their local market.”

The company offers small, “micro” sites called Exoticca Private Label for each agent that can include their picture, telephone number and logo of the agency, and is a fully transactional website that customers can book through.

He said that the company is constantly improving and learning from agent feedback among the 70,000 registered in Canada and the U.S. That includes being told Quebec customers want French tour guides and website, which the company will soon offer.

Exoticca prides itself on its commission structure, which is a flat commission of 16 per cent of everything, including air, land, even taxes.

Constans said the company pays 60 per cent of the commission at the moment of booking, which is non-recallable, so even if the customer cancels, the agent can still earn some money.

“We believe the travel agent has done the work, done the sale. That’s why they merit to keep it,” he said.

Head to our Facebook page to see more photos from the event. 

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