Inside Travel is planning to double the size of its Australian business over the next three years as demand for travel to Asia continues to accelerate.
The specialist tour operator currently employs around 40 staff in Australia, but co-founder Simon King says the market presents significant opportunity as interest in destinations like Japan and South Korea grows rapidly.
“We’re about 40 people,” King told Travel Weekly.
“We’d be looking to grow over the next three years, probably looking to double in size over the next three years. There’s so much potential here in Australia for travel to all of Asia. It’s a really great market for us.”
Asia growth drives expansion
Inside Travel was originally founded as InsideJapan Tours in 2000, when international tourism to the country was still relatively niche.
King said inbound tourism to Japan has grown dramatically over the past two decades.
“When we started back in 2000, it was about 5 million inbound tourists to Japan and last year it was 43 million,” he said.
“That’s incredible growth from the world into Japan. Japan’s gone from being a niche destination to being quite mainstream.”
The company is now seeing particularly strong growth in South Korea.
“South Korea is our fastest growing destination from here, and from the UK as well. It’s doing really well,” King said.
The rise is being fuelled by the global popularity of Korean culture, from music to food and beauty.
“People enjoy eating amazing Korean food, and you get some pretty good Korean food here in Australia. Then they think, great, I’d love to go and try it in Korea.
“People see K-pop bands and Korean culture more broadly. Korean makeup is really quite famous and well regarded. That cultural lens can often lead to growth in travel.”
King said the pattern mirrors what happened with Japan over the past two decades.
“That’s what we saw with Japan, with anime, manga, sushi and karaoke. That was maybe 20 years ago when that really started, and we’re seeing a similar kind of thing with Korea now.”
Australian market opportunity
King said Australia presents a particularly strong market for travel to Asia, partly due to its geographic proximity.
“There definitely are some differences,” he said.
“You’re a lot closer to Asia here. That means people may travel a bit more often.”
He added Australians also tend to have a strong familiarity with Asian food and culture.
“There’s quite a high level understanding of the food and culture here as well. That means we need to be talking to the Australian market in a slightly different way.”
Crisis preparedness
With more than 25 years in the travel industry, King has seen the sector weather multiple global disruptions, from 9/11 to the global financial crisis and natural disasters in Japan.
One key lesson, he said, is the importance of preparation.
“Getting your crisis management in place, practised and with a good flow, with people aware of it in the business, is so important,” he said.
Inside Travel regularly runs crisis simulations to prepare staff for unexpected disruptions.
“We do a full simulation once every couple of years, and then a more light-touch one in between. We’ll get an organisation in and they’ll run a proper simulation with us.
“That includes media calls, with people pretending to be journalists.”
Growth with purpose
While the business continues to scale, King said maintaining its sustainability ethos remains central to the company’s strategy.
“I really strongly believe that as you grow as a business, your ability to have impact grows as well,” he said.
Inside Travel links its charitable giving directly to its financial performance.
“We have our giving back pledge, which is directly linked to the operating profit for the business. It’s 5 per cent of adjusted operating profit.
“That gives a clear link between success in the business and what we’re giving back.”
In Australia, the company’s primary charity partner is Camp Quality.
Tackling overtourism
The company is also working to redistribute tourism flows in Japan by promoting lesser visited regions.
“We’ve identified five areas that are under-visited,” King said.
“They don’t have a lot of tourists going there, but they have the desire to have more tourists coming.”
“They’ve got the infrastructure to handle it, they’re reasonably well connected and they’re places our customers would be interested in going.”
The company is now integrating those destinations into itineraries and measuring the results.
“We’re measuring the number of room nights that we’re getting in those areas.”
King said tourism could help revitalise rural regions.
“A lot of rural places in Japan have suffered from depopulation,” he said.
“So it’s finding those places and working with them, rather than just dipping in and out of lots of places, so we can focus on a few and actually make a difference.”
Lessons from a volatile industry
King said one of the biggest lessons from the global financial crisis was the importance of strong financial oversight.
“The lesson we learned out of that was it’s really worth investing in your finance team,” he said.
“Getting really good people in finance and being on top of things, especially FX and foreign exchange as a travel company, is invaluable.”
Despite the volatility, he believes optimism remains a defining trait of the travel industry.
“People in travel are naturally optimistic, which is great,” he said.
“You develop a bit of resilience and a never give up attitude.”
