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KARRYON AWARD WINNER: Meet your favourite adventure AND sustainable travel company

KARRYON readers, you are such fans of Intrepid Travel that you have voted the adventure travel company in for not just ONE, but TWO KARRYON Awards, naming them as both the best in adventure and sustainable travel.

KARRYON readers, you are such fans of Intrepid Travel that you have voted the adventure travel company in for not just ONE, but TWO KARRYON Awards, naming them as both the best in adventure and sustainable travel.

Intrepid has been taking travellers off the beaten track to discover the world for over 29 years. They now have 1,500 trips in more than 120 countries.

Every trip is designed to truly experience local culture – to meet local people, try local food, take local transport and stay in local accommodation.

We chatted with Regional Director of the Asia Pacific Intrepid Group, Brett Mitchell, learn more about Intrepid.

 

What does winning these KARRYON Industry Awards mean to you and your team?

Image credit: Liam Neal/ Intrepid Travel

Image credit: Liam Neal/ Intrepid Travel

At Intrepid Group we are proud of our strong industry partnerships and winning these awards validates the hard work our teams are doing in this space to grow our respective businesses.

To have won both ‘Best Adventure Company’ and ‘Best Sustainable Travel’ awards is humbling, and gives us even more motivation to continue our vision of “changing the way people see the world”.

Thank you to KARRYON and for those who voted for us, these categories are really important to us and the awards will be going straight to the pool room!

 

How do you and your team make an impression to agents and consumers?

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We hope we make an impression by having the most passionate and dedicated staff, living our values each and every day, along with sharing our beliefs and passions with our partners and our travellers.

Most recently we distilled the essence of what it means to ‘Be Intrepid’ into a brand campaign. We are seeing that the themes of ‘Be Open’, ‘Be Fearless’, ‘Be Curious’ and ‘Be Challenged’ resonate so strongly with our partners that we’ve even seen some agents getting this message as tattoos – that’s definitely making an impression!

As the campaign continues to roll out and evolve, we expect this to continue to inspire our travellers, our partners and our staff worldwide.

 

How important is your organisation to the industry?

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At Intrepid Group, we have always been at the forefront of innovation and striving for a better way to operate to create responsible, sustainable and meaningful experiences for our travellers.

In terms of our sustainability work, we’ve taken a very strong advocacy stance on many topics, from being the first global travel company to ban elephant rides on our tours, to our constant work in educating travellers on the negative impact on voluntourism and orphanage tourism, to speaking out on a range of issues including the Trump travel ban and supporting marriage equality.

Collaboration with our partners is key to these changes becoming mainstream in the industry, and we believe that by encouraging people to travel more sustainably, travel can be a force for good and the greatest form of wealth distribution globally.

What do you love most about the travel industry?

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The people. It’s all about the wonderfully weird characters and Intrepid really encourages their employees to be themselves and have fun.

Through travel, I have been lucky enough to meet and become friends with so many diverse people – everyone from one of our local leaders in Bangkok who taught me to cook Pad Thai, to working with the talented Intrepid staff at Melbourne’s Head Office.

Even something as simple as bonding over a beer in the pub in outback Australia can create a genuine connection.

Sharing these meaningful experiences with people from all over the world is definitely my favourite part of the industry.

What is your most memorable travel experience?

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Visiting East Arnhem Land and the Garma Festival last year is in my top three for sure.

Intrepid are big champions for indigenous tourism and empowerment which is something I am personally very proud of.

We’re incredibly proud to be able to work with the Yolngu people to bring travellers to this truly remote part of Australia to the same untouched wilderness that the Yolngu people’s ancestors walked.

We have so much to learn from Indigenous Australia and this experience was nothing short of incredible. I would recommend this trip for anyone looking to experience the real Australia.

 

What do you think the future holds for the travel industry?

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Sustainable travel will no longer be a term, it will just be how we travel. It is so clear that travelling responsibly and sustainably is at the forefront of many people’s minds and hopefully this will continue to become the norm.

 

Any advice to an individual thinking of joining the industry?

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See the travel industry as a serious career path as it can be the most rewarding period in your life.

In this industry the sky really is the limit if you work hard enough and have the passion – you never know where it will take you.

 

Thanks to our sponsor nib travel insurance.

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Please join us in congratulating Intrepid Travel on a job well done!