Intrepid Travel has collaborated with Jetstar to showcase Sri Lanka to Australian content creators travelling on the carrier’s inaugural direct flight from Melbourne to Colombo.
Jetstar’s inaugural flight on 25 August marked the first direct connection between Melbourne and Colombo operated by an Australian airline. The new service will operate three times a week, offering more than 100,000 low-fare seats between Australia and Sri Lanka each year.
Intrepid brought its deep local knowledge to the group, helping ANZ content creators experience the best of Sri Lanka once they landed. The local team manages more than a dozen itineraries and hundreds of trips each year, meaning the same people looking after the trip are drawing on years of experience creating and operating trips for Intrepid travellers.
Sri Lanka was Intrepid’s sixth most popular destination for Australian and New Zealand travellers in 2025, with bookings growing almost 30% yoy. So far in 2026, it has climbed to fifth place, with bookings up 15 per cent year-on-year.
Intrepid’s local operation is one of its largest outside Australia. Its Colombo office, established in 2012, has grown to 276 office-based staff and 45 local tour leaders, supporting everything from product development and customer service to finance, technology and revenue management.
“Jetstar’s new direct service will make it easier for Australian travellers to get to Sri Lanka, and we wanted to make sure the content creators travelling on that first flight got to experience what makes this destination so special once they arrived,” Intrepid Travel general manager Sri Lanka, Poornaka Delpachitra, said.
“We’ve been operating in Sri Lanka for more than 14 years, so our local team knows the country incredibly well. There’s so much more to Sri Lanka than the places you’ll find in a guidebook – it’s the people you meet, the food you eat and the experiences you have along the way that really bring it to life. That’s what we wanted to share on this trip – a real taste of Sri Lanka, through the eyes of the people who know it best.”
Tailor-made itinerary
The five-day tailor-made itinerary kicked off with a welcome dinner for the creators, their trip leader and Delpachitra.
Over the five days, the group experienced some of the best of Sri Lanka’s wildlife, culture, food and communities, including wildlife safaris in national parks, a traditional pottery-making experience, a cooking demonstration and lunch with a local grandmother in a rural village, visits to historic sites and temples, and a visit to The Intrepid Foundation’s local NGO partner, Zero Plastic, at its Impact Centre.
