Intrepid chief identifies ‘enormous’ market opportunity in UK 

Intrepid Travel chief executive James Thornton has outlined further growth ambitions for the UK market as he revealed the company recorded 20% year on year growth in trade sales.  

A rise in baby boomers booking "premium" group tours, an evolving customer base and "making inroads" with marketing were some of the factors behind the growth.

Speaking in a Travel Weekly webcast, Thornton said: “We are in a super fortunate part of the market as people seem to want experiences increasingly and to work for and buy from companies that are truly sustainable, and we have got good credentials in both of those things.

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“Our trading out of the UK is up 17% year on year, and there are not many 35-year-old companies growing at that level, and it’s even better for our travel agent business [in the UK] which is up 20%.”

He revealed 30% of the business came from the UK and Europe, 30% from the US and Canada and 40% from Australia and New Zealand, acknowledging that there was “more opportunity” to explore in the UK and US.

Thornton explained: “In Australia, Intrepid is close to being a household name and we are making a bit more inroads in the UK, but the UK is double the population size of Australia, so the market opportunity is enormous.

“And then if you go to the US, and while it is challenging times over there, out of 300 million people, 150 million are very much aligned to our way of thinking, so the market opportunity is massive and Intrepid is just cutting the edge over there.”

He said the entire segment was “performing well”, adding: “I don’t think we’re necessarily taking market share from others, but maybe we’re taking it from other forms of travel that are moving towards us.

“Generally, we’re doing a relatively good job of positioning the Intrepid brand well in the UK market, which will help our cause, but there’s a lot of growth out there for everyone.”

The top three selling destinations for the UK currently are Vietnam, Morocco and Sri Lanka.

He said Intrepid’s premium style of travel, launched globally during the pandemic following the integration of a brand called Peregrine, has been its fastest-growing style of travel which had “attracted people like my parents”.

“Ultimately, we have found that Intrepid has moved away from where it was when I joined the company 20 years ago when it was much more geared towards younger customers and first-time travellers,” he said, adding: “Our customer base has really evolved, particularly around that baby boomer space.”