JOURNY TV is striving to "inherit the mantle of the travel channel of old," according to chief operating officer Ian Sharpe; speaking to Travel Bulletin, Ian unpacked how the channel hopes not just to capture the imaginations of hundreds of millions of households, but the bookings too
Since relaunching with a new presence in August of last year, JOURNY is now accessible via Samsung TV Plus, iOS and Android Apps, and video-on-demand online. That ubiquity, Ian explained, is key to how the company hopes not to reinvent the wheel of travel media, but speed it up.
"When we talk about inheriting the travel channel mantle, we have to be in all of these places and have an omni-channel presence to be effective in the 21st century."
Access to hundreds of millions of households worldwide is not worth much without great content to broadcast; that has been a key focus for Ian and team JOURNY since last summer's acquisition. "The secret sauce of a TV channel has to be something people want to watch. We inherited a channel with lots of licensed content—Richard Ayoade and his Travel Man show, for example—but now we need to make our own. We have already signed up Chef Ben from Below Deck, for example; he is going to be sailing, disembarking, getting ingredients, heading back aboard, and cooking.
"We have got to create compelling television to... get the eyeballs which could amount to up to 300 million around the world."
The potential of JOURNY's original content remains one of the brand's most exciting pillars. "The highlight, post-acquisition, has been the speed at which we're doing it all; we have brought on board an in-house team to produce original content, we are making more acquisitions of channels and content to increase our reach... we have got some quality shows, and we are making more."
And how do those licensed faves and exclusive originals convert to booking? That is where NextTrip, which acquired the existing content pool and digital presence in August 2025, comes in. QR codes, on-screen call to actions, and interactive overlays all allow viewers to book directly with NextTrip, hoping to push the channel close to the long-gone days of Teletext accounting for 10% of package holidays.
"NextTrip has got a range of different booking platforms... all of that, plus the TV/streaming presence, creates an ecosystem with the media at the top of the funnel.
"It's all about clients' discovery, awareness, ideation and dreaming, through to the conversion and booking stage."
Ian Sharpe is the chief commercial officer of media at NextTrip.
