Intrepid refunded over $21m and almost halved its workforce in 2020 due to COVID-19

Intrepid refunded over $21m and almost halved its workforce in 2020 due to COVID-19
By Travel Weekly


Intrepid Travel has laid bare the challenges the company faced as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic with the release of its 2020 annual report.

The report outlines how Intrepid navigated the impacts of COVID-19, which saw the company halt global operations for the first time in its 32-year history, and cut its workforce by almost 50 per cent over three rounds of redundancies.

According to the 2020 report, Intrepid refunded over $21 million to customers in response to COVID-19 cancellations, and processed more than 43,000 trip credits.

Last year also saw the world’s largest travel B Corp review its day tours division, Intrepid Urban Adventures, and introduce a new model which sees tours operated through its DMC and select third-party operators.

On a more positive note, Intrepid launched 81 new, fully carbon-offset trips in response to new domestic travel demand.

It also became the first and only global tour operator with verified science-based climate targets, creating an emissions trajectory in line with a 1.5 degrees Celsius world.

Other notable achievements for the company in 2020 was the dispersal of $1.2 million to communities around the world through The Intrepid Foundation, as well as its largest-ever investment deal with French business Genairgy.

The report also contains revised targets and goals that Intrepid will work towards as international travel starts to recover.

“We know that we create value through more than just our bottom line,” Intrepid CEO James Thornton said.

“While we’ll all look back on 2020 as a year of loss, there were many opportunities, too.

“We took a story of survival and turned it into a story of strength. We ended the year by securing a new strategic partnership that will help realise our future transformation, and I’m confident Intrepid will come out the other side of this as a more innovative company.”

Thornton said he hopes the release of the report will encourage other travel businesses to adopt integrated reporting as a way to create deeper transparency with the travel industry.

“We do not only want to be the best travel company for the world, but we want to inspire other businesses to commit to higher standards of transparency as well,” he said.

“The trust of our travellers and the trust of our industry will be a key part of our recovery. This report helps us deliver on that, and shows that even in the most challenging of years, Intrepid is a company that lives our values.”

You can read the report in full here.

Featured image source: Intrepid Travel

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