Discover Australia Holidays

What Discover Australia Holidays does

Discover Australia Holidays is a privately held Australian package tour operator (wholesale) founded in 1996 by the Harding family and headquartered in Perth, with additional operations support in Manila. The company designs, packages and distributes all-inclusive pre-packaged holidays bundling flights, transfers, accommodation, tours and cruises, operating two complementary brands: Discover Australia Holidays covering Australian destinations and HolidayMax covering international bucket-list destinations. Customers are primarily individual Australian travellers concentrated in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, distributed through both the company's own consumer websites and a network of retail travel agents.

Core products include Train Packages (The Ghan, Indian Pacific, Great Southern, Spirit of Queensland), Touring Packages, Cruise Packages and Self-Drive Packages, with package prices ranging from approximately A$248 for entry-level self-drive to A$16,278 for premium luxury rail combinations. The company has built a proprietary dynamic packaging technology system in-house with live connections to supplier systems enabling real-time pricing, availability and instant booking, supported by vertical integration through branded tours, dedicated coaches and directly employed Tour Directors.

The business model operates as a wholesale tour operator earning margin between supplier costs and retail package prices. Go-to-market is 100% digital and data-driven across owned websites (combined 5 million monthly unique visitors), a dealsAlert email database of 400,000+ households, paid digital advertising, social media and retail travel agent resellers. The company is 100% family-owned across three generations, has delivered over 1 million holidays, and self-describes as likely Australia's largest privately owned travel company. Revenue, funding, and formal financial metrics are not publicly disclosed.

Name

Discover Australia Holidays

Legal name

Kalhaven Holdings Pty Ltd

Website

https://discoveraustralia.com.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Discover Australia Holidays is a Perth-based, family-owned wholesale tour operator that designs, packages and distributes all-inclusive Australian and international holiday packages to individual travellers and retail travel agents through its own consumer websites and proprietary dynamic packaging technology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Travel Package Tours

NAICS

Tour Operators (561520), Tour Operators (56152)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYTHAKAJAC

Package Tour Wholesalers (Pre-Packaged FIT/Group Programs)

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Agencies, Tour Operators & OTAs/Travel Consolidators & Wholesalers

SECONDARYTHAKADAN

Rail Journey Package Tour Operators

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Agencies, Tour Operators & OTAs/Tour Operators (Multi-Day Package Tours)

SECONDARYTHAKADAA

Escorted Coach & Bus Package Tour Operators

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Agencies, Tour Operators & OTAs/Tour Operators (Multi-Day Package Tours)

SECONDARYTHAKADAO

Cruise & Land Tour (Cruisetour) Package Operators

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Agencies, Tour Operators & OTAs/Tour Operators (Multi-Day Package Tours)

Keywords

• Package tour operator
• All-inclusive holidays
• Travel package wholesale
• Rail tour packages
• Australian holiday packages

Headquarters

HQ city

Perth

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Package Tour Wholesale: Pre-packaged all-inclusive holiday packages sold as wholesale to retail travel agents and directly to consumers. Packages bundle flights, transfers, tours, cruises and accommodation into a single price. Revenue generated from margin between wholesale supplier costs and retail package pricing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Discover Australia Holidays is a wholesale package tour operator selling pre-packaged all-inclusive holidays bundling flights, transfers, tours, cruises, and accommodation into a single price. Through its Discover Australia Holidays brand (Australian specialist) and HolidayMax brand (international bucket-list specialist), it distributes packages directly to consumers via proprietary websites with live pricing and instant booking, and wholesale to retail travel agents across Australia. Product categories include Train Packages (The Ghan, Indian Pacific, Great Southern, Spirit of Queensland), Touring Packages, Cruise Packages, and Self-Drive Packages.

Product overview

Discover Australia Holidays operates two brands as a package tour operator (wholesale): Discover Australia Holidays (The Australian Specialist) covering all Australian destinations, and HolidayMax™ (The International Specialist) covering global bucket-list destinations. Both brands offer readymade pre-packaged all-inclusive holidays bundling flights, transfers, tours, cruises, and accommodation. The product portfolio includes Train Packages (featuring The Ghan, Indian Pacific, Great Southern, Spirit of Queensland rail journeys), Touring Packages (coach tours across Australian regions), Cruise Packages (river and ocean cruises), and Self-Drive Packages (car hire with hotels). All packages feature live interactive pricing and are instantly bookable through the company's proprietary dynamic packaging technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Train Packages

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• HolidayMaxcoreOthersSister brand and division of the same company. HolidayMax covers select international bucket-list destinations while Discover Australia Holidays covers all Australian destinations in depth. Both brands operate under Kalhaven Holdings Pty Ltd with consolidated resources.
• Hotels, Airlines, Tours, Vehicle Hire OperatorscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLong-standing direct wholesale relationships with accommodation providers, airlines, tour operators, car rental companies. Products are packaged into tour wholesale programs with single price for all components ensuring rate integrity.
• Retail Travel AgentscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership with retail travel agents across Australia who distribute the company's popular range of package holidays through wholesale relationships. Agents can register to become travel agent partners.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• APT Travel Group: Privately held Australian premium tour operator offering fully escorted luxury and small-group tours domestically and internationally. Comparable vertically integrated touring model with branded coaches, dedicated Tour Directors and bundled rail/cruise content.
• TripADeal: Australian package-holiday specialist selling discounted all-inclusive holidays via TV, digital and email channels. Closely comparable mid-market all-inclusive package model, wholesale supplier relationships and email-driven acquisition motion.
• Trafalgar Tours: Global guided-holiday operator (part of The Travel Corporation) with a strong Australian domestic touring program. Comparable on escorted coach touring product structure, Tour Director workforce and curated multi-day package itineraries.
• Luxury Escapes: Australian-headquartered package-holiday brand selling curated all-inclusive holiday packages across Asia-Pacific and beyond. Comparable digital-first, package-tour-wholesale model with strong email and data-driven marketing similar to dealsAlert.
• Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours: Australian-founded premium river-cruise and touring operator with all-inclusive itineraries across multiple continents. Comparable on all-inclusive product positioning, branded coaches and small-group touring inventory.
• Helloworld Travel: ASX-listed Australian travel distribution network combining retail travel agency franchises with a wholesale touring arm. Directly comparable wholesale + retail travel agency model and strong Australian domestic and inbound tour packaging.
• Inspiring Vacations: Australian D2C tour operator offering competitively priced fully inclusive tours across multiple continents. Comparable direct-to-consumer all-inclusive packaging, similar email-led marketing playbook and overlap on Australian domestic and international bucket-list itineraries.
• AAT Kings: Australian guided-holiday tour operator specialising in coach touring across Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Directly comparable on guided coach touring product, Tour Director workforce and partnership distribution with retail agents.

Broad incumbents

• Flight Centre Travel Group: ASX-listed Australian travel company operating a global portfolio of retail travel brands (Flight Centre, Corporate Traveller, Travellers Choice) and tour brands. Comparable as Australia's largest travel retailer/wholesaler with overlapping package-tour offerings and a mixed direct + retail agent distribution model.
• Webjet: ASX-listed Australian online travel agency with growing B2B hotel distribution arm (WebBeds). Comparable on digital packaging of flights and hotels into dynamic packages and as a domestic OTA competitor for direct-booking traffic.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Discover Australia Holidays