Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton will relaunch the experiential tour company’s 2030 strategy in the second half of 2025, given this week’s bumper financial report as it continues its rapid expansion into the northern hemisphere.
Thornton says Intrepid will continue to improve on its post-pandemic growth which was up 40 per cent over the previous year and has a top-line revenue target closer to $800 million for the year ahead.
Add to that record client and staff satisfaction survey figures and its sustainability and community values firmly entrenched with B Corp recertification and confidence is at an all-time high.
“We think we’ve got a bigger opportunity to push the agenda further,” says Thornton who credits the bounce back from Covid partially to the investment by French company Genairgy. It secured a 30 per cent equity stake in Intrepid’s global business in 2022 while co-founders Darrell Wade and Geoff Manchester, who started the business in 1989, retained majority ownership and remain on the board as chairman and director, respectively.
The investment helped with acquisitions, a major rebrand and extending its global presence in the form of out-of-home advertising campaigns.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve been out advertising the brands across Australia, across the major transport networks, now with sports sponsorships (BBL’s Melbourne Stars in 2020 and currently North Melbourne AFL Club) now, and we’ve done that really significantly as well in key markets like London and New York and Toronto, which are big traveller bases for us,” he explains.
While its current market share is around 40 per cent in APAC, and 30 per cent each for the UK and US, expect that to turn on its head within the next few years, he says.
“Our style of travel, we feel is relatively in its infancy and perhaps not widely understood,” Thornton tells Travel Weekly. “I think the cruise market is well established. River cruising is well established. Big coach touring is well established. I think our style of, kind of experiential, small group experience reach-type travel is still something that’s relatively unknown. And I think more and more customers would love it if they knew about it.”
Intrepid Travel’s record FY24 performance lays foundation for international growth
Happier than ever
In the meantime, both customers and its 3,399 staff and tour leaders are also happier than ever, with record Net Promoter Scores achieved for both.
Thornton says that part being a certified B Corp is while you are there to deliver profit to shareholders, deliver a great experience to customers, foster its own people are benefit those destination communities they work with, a key part of that people piece is to share in their success.
“We’re able to make we’re able to pay $12.8 million in bonuses, which is a mixture of cash and shares, to our staff this month, which is amazing, and still deliver a $42.9 million underlying EBITDA,” he says. “We’ve got 555 staff who are now shareholders in 2024 and they’ve benefited from, additionally, receiving a dividend because the board agreed to pay our second dividends post the pandemic.
“So yes, really important to us that our people share in our financial success. And yeah, it gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to make those payments to our team members.”
Shrugging off economic effect
Thornton is not perturbed by either the current economic climate and subsequent cost-of-loving pressures, or the forthcoming Federal election, let alone any Trump policy after-effects. The Australian business alone grew 37 per cent in January and 20 per cent in February.
“People book our style of sustainable experience for each travel because there’s a really good value proposition.” he says. “People are often kind of booking down from premium or luxury products onto our range of different itineraries.
“We’ve got good proof of that during the global financial crisis, where, as a group, we grew 20 per cent so I’m fully expecting 2025 will be another record year for Intrepid. We’ll deliver strong top-line revenue growth and will probably head close towards $800 million because of the acquisition of the Dutch business (Sawadee Reizen from Travelopia), that we acquired last month.
“Also, strong organic growth will probably grow organically at 15 per cent again this year. So, if we do that, that will mean that we’ll deliver better bottom line returns, which our people can benefit from as well. So now I’m expecting 2025 to be a really strong year again for Intrepid.”
The move by the formidable Leigh Barnes to head up the US operations to grow the brand presence and partnerships there is also a deliberate move to make the US its largest market over the course of the next few years. But it’s not without its hurdles, given the Trump Administration stand on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plus the Elon Musk-led destruction of US Federally-funded entities under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Intrepid is a really strong values-led business,” Thornton adds. “We believe really strongly in creating positive change through the joy of travel. So, for Intrepid, we believe that politics goes in four-year cycles, but brands go much longer than that, and so Intrepid will continue to lean into the things that it believes in.
“We believe in inclusivity, we believe in the power of travel, we believe in supporting local communities. We’re going to continue to speak loudly for what Intrepid stands for, and we think our customers will continue to back us.”
With the US a strongly domestic market over an outbound, international market, Intrepid will also be looking to get its own people on the ground in destinations such the as the iconic parks of Yosemite to Yellowstone, to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, plus leveraging its presence through recent purchases of Wildland Trekking.
“We need to expand our leaders and our capability there to fulfill the demand for US customers that want to be active, want to get back country, be healthy, and do our kind of style of immersive travel,” he says.
Solid foundations
The Intrepid Foundation, which has raised more than $18 million for 160 partners since its inception in 2002, will also benefit from that continue growth, says Thornton. While $2.4 million was raised for community projects in 2024, there are now plans to increase this to $3 million in 2025.
Examples of community projects include Intrepid‘s DMC in Indonesia announcing a new local partner for The Intrepid Foundation – Scholar of Sustenance (SOS Indonesia) dedicated to reducing food waste and addressing hunger.
Thornton, who has been with the company for two decades, adds that while the Intrepid continues to grow rapidly, the philosophy of the original founders remains the same.
“It comes from within our people and our culture and our very DNA,” he says. “I think it comes from the origins of our founders. It comes from the top in terms of me as the CEO, but it comes right throughout the organisation, from all of our people across the 31 offices globally.”
