At Intrepid, being ‘the best travel company for the world’ is more than just words. It’s a commitment backed up by over 34 years of work. That’s why we openly share our environmental and social performance every year in our Integrated Annual Report.
We brought over 328,000 travellers on trips with us through 120 countries on all seven continents in 2023. Behind the scenes, it was a big year of record growth at Intrepid, driven by thousands of Intrepid people – our staff, travellers, partners and more – who collectively prove that Intrepid’s purpose-led business model works. And when it works, the stories of the people who make it work are at the heart of it.
You can find some of those stories inside our Integrated Annual Report (alongside some facts and figures). It’s a big read, for good reason – we’ve got a lot to say! Read on for the highlight reel.
1. Great people doing good
Our people are behind our performance, and we invested in them in 2023, adding over 1000 new staff members across the globe. Every one of them is paid a verified living wage, and we expanded our family leave policies to better support their lives outside of work. Over 600 of us made use of our volunteer policies (20 hours per year), contributing over 6000 hours to 167 volunteer organisations globally. Want in on these benefits? Check out our current openings.
2. Looking forward to a bigger and better Intrepid
While our best year ever was unfolding, our leadership team looked ahead to the future, building the foundation of our 2030 strategy for the evolution of Intrepid. We put the wheels in motion to not only run better trips but to take Intrepid beyond trips, because we believe the world needs more Intrepid people. We kicked that off in 2023 by entering the accommodation sector through the purchase of an ecolodge in Australia, and by introducing four new company values – we are real, ambitious, impactful and together.
3. Carbon action
Because knowledge is power, we added carbon labels to more than 800 trips so you can be better equipped to make informed travel decisions. Like a lot of travel companies, we’re continually learning and evolving in this space, so we published an open-source guide to carbon labelling and emissions modelling so other travel companies can leverage our learnings and we can work together to build industry-wide best practices.
4. Contributions to charitable and community causes
Intrepid and The Intrepid Foundation contributed $4.6 million to charitable and community causes around the world in 2023. Much of that was supported through generous donations to The Intrepid Foundation, but on top of that Intrepid donated cash, volunteer time, in-kind donations and management time to various community causes, including the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood service and the First Nations Tourism Mentoring Program, throughout the year.
5. Good Trips Only, everywhere
We painted the town red around the globe with our biggest brand campaign ever. Built to reach more Intrepid people and raise our brand profile in key cities, Good Trips Only splashed onto billboards, buses, trains, screens, cinemas and earbuds in Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, New York City, London, Marrakech and more, reaching an estimated 280 million people.
6. So many good stories shared
We were hot off the presses more than once in 2023, most notably as one of TIME Magazine’s top 100 most influential companies, not to mention the over 6500 other mentions in the media throughout the year, featuring Intrepid’s travel experiences and climate and equality leadership. We told plenty of our own stories, too, with over 140 stories right here on The Good Times, plus countless more on our social channels, where over 150,000 of you joined our communities, including our newest foray: TikTok.
7. Best year ever
It’s not all about the money, but it’s what keeps the lights on, and 2023 marked our best financial performance ever, a welcome milestone after a few years of pandemic-induced challenges. Last year we saw our biggest day of direct bookings ever, and as a result of that one day, 1900 travellers will be heading off on Intrepid trips.
8. More trips and make ‘em better
We added 94 new trips to our catalogue and made hundreds of improvements to existing itineraries, including 60 brand-new experiences and 385 tweaks based on customer feedback. We continued to make it a priority to add and improve experiences with community impact to help more people benefit culturally and economically from our trips, like our new Timor-Leste and Albania Expeditions. You can dive into what’s new for 2024 over on The Goods.
9. Improved customer service and experience
Supporting travellers on the ground and on the hunt for an adventure means ensuring our customer service can keep up. In 2023, we made improvements to our systems to shave minutes off of phone and chat wait times, speed up our website by 22 percent and offer personalised email communications.
10. You gave back in big ways
The Intrepid Foundation added 34 new partners in 2023, including Gorilla Doctors in Rwanda and Vun Art in Vietnam. The Foundation’s always-on fundraising efforts and emergency appeals collected $2.8 million in donations from Intrepid travellers and supporters, which, in turn, supported 50 NGOs and charities, and contributed to humanitarian relief efforts in Morocco, Turkey, Syria and Hawaii.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that was Intrepid’s best year, fuelled by an ever-growing sense of community, connection and curiosity. Head over to the full Integrated Annual Report to read more and learn about our financial, environmental and social performance and how we hold ourselves accountable to being better.
