Intrepid Travel targets growth in tailor-made bookings

Intrepid Travel is hiring for a general manager of tailor-made travel as it looks to grow its sales in the division.

 

The successful applicant, who will be based in either Melbourne or London and report to chief executive officer James Thornton, will be tasked with “developing and rapidly scaling a business model that caters to a range of travellers”.

 

In a webcast with Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley, Thornton revealed changing preferences among Intrepid’s customers was behind the move.

 

“We’re increasingly seeing that people want our style of immersive travel but they don’t always want to do it on a small group basis,” he said.

 

“One reason why I think people don’t convert to intrepid is because they don’t want to travel as part of a group – they want to have something designed independently for them, which is why you’ll see a big focus around tailor-made [from Intrepid].”

 

More: Intrepid chief identifies ‘enormous’ market opportunity in UK 

 

Thornton explained that customers booking a tailor-made trip would “travel with their family or friends and have an itinerary design exclusively”, rather than as part of a group of about 10 people, which is a typical group size for an Intrepid trip.

 

Currently, tailor-made sales account for about 10% of Intrepid’s overall business.

 

Thornton said selling tailor-made travel also presents an opportunity for agents to increase their earning potential due to the traditionally higher costs attached to it.

 

Thornton said the operator is also looking to continue expanding its property portfolio.

 

Earlier this year it acquired a 17-room riad in Marrakech and the 20-room Edge of the Bay resort in Tasmania, which joined the Daintree Ecolodge in Tropical North Queensland and a hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam. 

 

“Make no mistake about it, we will open more accommodation over the course of time,” said Thornton. “We’re looking at some accommodation in Lapland at the moment because we don’t have any tours going into that part of the world.

 

“By acquiring some properties and doing some interesting things, we can create a style of travel that we currently don’t have access to.”

 

The company has previously revealed plans to expand to 20 properties worldwide in the next three years.  

 

Thornton said Intrepid will also be “more acquisitive” in the European market in terms of acquisitions, following its acquisition of Dutch tour operator Sawadee Reizen from Travelopia in February.

 

“This will help both in terms of inbound travel and source market outbound because some of the operators we are acquiring have operations in European markets,” said Thornton.

 

“[You can expect] more market expansion, more product expansion, and you’ll see us moving into things like rail a bit more, as well as newer destinations.”