CIE Tours Expands with Walking & Hiking Ireland Tours in 2026 and New Spain Packages for 2025
by Sarah Milner
Dromoland Castle in County Clare. Photo: CIE Tours
No one does Ireland quite like CIE Tours – and pretty soon, the tour operator will be doing Ireland in a whole new way.
CIE Tours has been selling tours to Ireland and Britain since opening its doors in 1932. Today, the tour operator also sells packages in Iceland, Italy, and – new in 2025 – Spain. It is known for its coach tours, but also offers tours in the categories small group, self-drive, and private driver.
Next year, the tour operator will introduce a whole new product category: Walking & Hiking tours. This new, more active tour style will let travelers of all ages experience the Emerald Isle in a more up-close and personal fashion.
TMR sat down with CIE Tours’ Rosanne Zusman, chief commercial officer, and Conor Wall, head of product, contracting and sustainability, to chat about the new product category and how CIE remains competitive in the competitive tour operator landscape.
New Walking & Hiking Tours Coming in 2026
CIE Tours is introducing Walking & Hiking tours in 2026, with two packages going on sale in the second half of 2025.
Guests can choose from a journey in the North (Ireland Walking & Hiking: The Northern Coast) or South (Ireland Walking & Hiking: Cork to Kerry). Both packages include guided hikes through the country’s breathtaking landscapes, seeing iconic landmarks and enjoying hands-on experiences along the way.
“It’s a new concept for CIE Tours, so we’re very excited about what the possibilities will be,” Wall told TMR.
Both tours are eight nights with departures from May to September. Group sizes range from six (minimum) to sixteen (maximum), and travelers can expect five to six hours of walking each day.
While some level of fitness is necessary, Wall explained that Ireland’s gentle slopes and paths are suitable for a “light-active” traveler.
“You don’t have to be a mountain climber,” Zusman said with a smile.
As part of the development process, CIE Tours surveyed travel advisors and customers in the U.S. and Canada to gauge interest in a more active tour style. While travel advisors were most confident in selling a coach-style journey by CIE Tours, customers reported a higher level of interest in a hiking-style trip than travel advisors had predicted.
“The consumer response was a little higher,” Zusman explained. “They said that they’d be very interested. I think it’s just a slightly different way of exploring the country, it’s a bit of a slower pace, and it’s a little more up close and personal.”
CIE Tours is testing the new product in Ireland to start, but may branch out to other destinations down the road if the hiking tours perform well.
“[Ireland’s] our sweet spot,” Zusman explained. “I actually did a walking and hiking tour in Ireland last year. It’s a spectacular place to hike.”
Expanding Into Spain in 2025
CIE Tours is offering a new Spain product for 2025, Best of Spain. The nine-day journey explores the cities of Madrid, Seville, Granada, Valencia, and Barcelona, and includes guided tours of cultural and historical landmarks.
Best of Spain is the company’s first offering in the country, and is available in its classic tour style, small group, and custom group.
“We try to walk before we run, so we want to make sure that we are developing the Spain product for the scheduled tours with custom groups before we expand into private driver,” said Zusman.
CIE Tours is also introducing a new Ireland tour in 2025: Irish Supreme. This nine-day package is based on a previous package the company offered, but has been elevated to a five-star experience.
“We replicated the tour, which we had previously, except we’ve enhanced the hotels… It’s got some super hotels on it and really great experiences,” Wall explained.
“We’ve got some great partnerships over in Ireland, which really helps to fulfill that,” he added.
Booking Trends: More Shoulder Season, Shorter Booking Windows
Ireland is the “bread and butter” of CIE Tours. Wall and Zusman credit the country’s gorgeous landscapes and warm hospitality for the destination’s steady appeal.
“There’s a real kinship between North America and Ireland, and the Irish are just incredibly welcoming people,” said Zusman.
When asked about the state of the industry and emerging trends, Zusman noted that the previous year had been “erratic” for sales. The company did a two-for-one airfare promotion in September that did very well, and the Black Friday promotion in November was also strong. (Another airfare promotion launching in the New Year – see below.)
“One trend we are seeing is people booking closer in … We were very surprised to see the number of people continuing to book for 2024 departures in August, September and October,” said Zusman.
“I think since COVID, there’s no such thing as normal patterns,” she added.
Another shift the tour operator has seen is an increase in shoulder season bookings – and not just for the expected warm destinations like Italy and Spain.
“It used to be that summer was high season,” explained Zusman. “Now we’re getting more business in shoulder seasons. If we were just Italy and Spain, you could say, ‘well, I can understand why, because it’s hot, it’s crowded.’ But Ireland is not hot in the summer. So that’s been an interesting trend.”
CIE Tours: Travel Advisor Incentives & New Agent Portal
It’s not just new products landing in 2025: CIE Tours is working on something for travel advisors as well.
Zusman told TMR that CIE Tours will roll out a new and improved travel advisor portal in the new year.
“Today, we have a portal, and people can log in, but this will make it much easier,” said Zusman. “The moment they log in, they’ll see a dashboard of not only all of their current confirmed bookings and their confirmed commissions, but their potential commissions, which is always a great incentive for you to follow up on those quotes that haven’t closed.”
In terms of upcoming promotions, CIE Tours will launch another month-long, two-for-one airfare sale in January. The offer will be valid for travel through June 1 to Aug. 31, 2025 on various tours to Ireland, Britain, and Iceland. More details to come on Jan. 2.
Currently, CIE Tours is running its largest travel advisor incentive program for the year. Travel advisors can earn an $800 group booking bonus for the following popular 2025 guided vacations:
- Best of Ireland South
- Irish Adventure
- Irish Pub
- Irish Supreme
- Scottish Isles & Glens
- Taste of Britain & Ireland
- Highlights of Britain
- Icelandic Explorer
- Northern Lights Quest
- Tour of Iceland
- Taste of Iceland
Travel advisors can earn a $600 incentive for all other 2025 groups to Ireland, Scotland, England & Wales, Italy, and Spain. Groups must be 10 or more, and advisors can earn up to 18% commissions with no money down at the time of booking.
The promotion runs until Jan. 14, 2025.
