The Melbourne-based B Corp has delivered its strongest financial, customer and impact results in 37 years, with the company forecasting it is now on track to hit $1 billion in bookings for the first time in 2026.
Thirty-seven years after Darrell Wade and Geoff Manchester founded Intrepid Travel on the idea that tourism could do more good than harm, the company has again posted the numbers to prove it.
Revenue hit $809.3 million in 2025, up 29 per cent year on year, with 317,880 customers generating $873.3 million in bookings and a net promoter score of 83, the highest in the company’s history.
The results, outlined in Intrepid’s bumper 106-page 2025 Integrated Annual Report, come despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East and heightened political uncertainty in the U.S. market.
Underlying EBITDA, a measure of operating earnings that strips out financing and accounting costs, reached $53.9 million, up 26 per cent on the prior year. Underlying net profit after tax rose to $29 million, also up 26 per cent.
Organic growth of 17 per cent drove the core result, led by the Australian and UK markets, with the acquisition of one of the largest experiential tour operators in the Netherlands, Sawadee Reizen, adding further scale.
A dinner in Lyon that changed the plan
In a joint letter shared in the Integrated Annual Report, co-founder and Chair Wade and CEO James Thornton describe a February 2025 dinner in Lyon with key shareholder Julien Leclercq as “our most difficult moment in 20+ years of working together.”
“The truth was that after working in climate for 20 years our approach wasn’t achieving the real-world impact that we wanted, or that the Earth needs,” Wade and Thornton wrote. “The three of us challenged each other on what a different pathway could look like.”
Seven months later, Intrepid retired its carbon offset program and launched a $2 million annual Climate Impact Fund from 2026 to support decarbonisation across its offices, hotels, transport, and supply chain. Scrapping a 20-year approach mid-stride says something about how the founders’ values still operate inside this business.
Sharing the spoils
Intrepid distributed $10.7 million in employee bonuses, split between cash and shares in 2025. The company, now 3,574 team members strong, has a stated goal to double employee shareholding to 20 per cent, consistent with Wade and Manchester’s long-held position that the business should be owned by the people who run it.
Those employee shareholders also received a dividend for the third consecutive year.
The growth, however, did come at a cost internally. Intrepid’s employee net promoter score, a measure of how likely staff are to recommend the company as a place to work, fell 10 points to 54. The company attributed the drop to the pressure of scaling quickly while tightening operations.
What about the impact numbers?
The company’s not-for-profit arm, The Intrepid Foundation, disbursed a record $3.4 million to 58 partner organisations across 45 countries, up 42 per cent on 2024, pushing past $20 million in total giving since 2002. The Foundation is targeting $4.3 million in 2026 and $10 million annually by 2030.
Wade and Manchester led from the front during the year, each completing the Foundation’s flagship 42-kilometre Blue Dragon Marathon Walk in New York. Manchester also marked Intrepid’s 20th anniversary in Vietnam alongside local teams and government officials.
Eyes on the billion
“We’re also on track to achieve $1 billion in bookings for the first time in 2026,” Wade and Thornton wrote. “This is a long-held dream of ours, which will mean Intrepid can create more impact for our team through learning, development and remuneration, as well as for local communities through investment and economic development.”
The $1 billion target sits alongside a broader expansion push. Intrepid opened three new country offices in 2025, in Denmark, Chile and Uganda, taking its global network to 31. Just last week, Intrepid opened its 32nd office in Rome, with Italy bookings up 93 per cent over three years.
The pending acquisition of Wild Bush Luxury will add nature-based experiences, including Arkaba Walk in the Flinders Ranges and The Maria Island Walk in Tasmania.
The timing is no accident. Travellers are increasingly choosing operators whose values match their own, and Intrepid’s trajectory over recent years suggests that shift is accelerating.
A net promoter score of 83 says the product is landing. Transparent record giving says the purpose is real.
A company heading toward a billion in bookings while its co-founders still run marathons for charity is further evidence that purpose-led travel is no longer a niche. It is where the market is heading.
KARRYON UNPACKS: For advisors selling Intrepid, the record numbers give a concrete story to tell clients who care about travelling responsibly: record revenue alongside $3.4 million distributed to communities, a $2 million climate fund, and co-founders still walking 42 kilometres for charity. The 100 per cent donation pass-through model and an NPS of 83 are worth flagging at the point of sale, particularly with travellers weighing up group tour operators on more than just price.
