Intrepid Travel chief hails ‘phenomenal’ performance of UK trade

Intrepid Travel’s chief executive has praised the “phenomenal” performance of the UK trade after it registered a “standout performance” in 2025.

In the operator’s latest financial results, the UK ended the year 19% up and within that business through travel agents increased by 28% year on year.

Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, James Thornton said the “underlying organic performance” of the company was “really strong”, adding: “We’re seeing a good performance from all markets around the world, and that was really led in 2025 by the UK and Europe market, but also by our home markets down in Australia and New Zealand, which both had sensational years.”

He added: “What changed as time went on through the course of the year was that our business through our travel agent partners grew faster than our direct-to-consumer business.

“We ended the year with 28% growth with our B2B partners. In the UK, which is phenomenal.”

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Thornton said that for the first two months of 2026, which were not covered by the financial report, the UK market had grown by 25% year on year, demonstrating “continued performance from our travel agent partners”.

He said: “We’re really seeing travel agent partners starting to understand and get behind experiential travel and looking to companies like Intrepid to book it with.”

Thornton said the brand would continue to invest in the UK market, particularly after seeing success with its first big billboard campaign four years ago, and it has committed half of its marketing budget to that advertising channel moving forwards.

Key trends in the 2025 report showed more customers were looking to book experiential travel in Europe with “good demand” from British customers wanting to travel locally, Thornton said, in addition to the operator’s premium and comfort ranges “growing faster” than any other products.

He said: “Intrepid still is a relative value proposition, so if potentially, the luxury or five-star market is out of reach of some people, stepping down to the four-star premium market with Intrepid is a really good option.”

Thornton added the operator’s two fastest-growing demographics were ’baby boomers’ and first-time travellers who have just left university.