To the Intrepid Travel community,
I hope you are staying safe and well during this unprecedented time for our industry – and our world. The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted our lives, and our business, in ways we simply never could have imagined.
For over 30 years, Intrepid has faced a number of obstacles that have disrupted tourism – from global recessions to terrorist attacks and other widespread health emergencies. Throughout each instance we have always tried our hardest to power through with care for our customers and community.
For the past several weeks, our team at Intrepid Travel have focused on nothing but our people: our staff, our community, and you, our customers. While we have not been perfect, we have done our best to act with empathy.
Since this situation began escalating, we’ve met each day to discuss where our travellers were in the world, how we could support them and help get them home safely. Beginning with over 3,000 travellers abroad in early March, our global operations team worked around the clock to bring that number down daily. I’m happy to share that the majority are now home and those who remain are in touch with their governments and on their journey home soon.
Throughout this time, we’ve seen the power of kindness shine through – from stories of our Intrepid leaders opening their own homes to our customers to the generosity of our partners who have opened their closed hotels to house our leaders.
For now, on behalf of all of us at Intrepid, we want to extend a sincere thank you for your patience and support in a time of great uncertainty. It is appreciated, now more than ever.
In the coming months Intrepid will set out to find impactful ways to support our entire value chain, starting with an initial commitment of setting up a Community Recovery Pledge in partnership with The Intrepid Foundation. This will support our vulnerable communities as they recover and rebuild their sustainable tourism products.
Intrepid Travel is resilient, much like our customers, and we are ready and eager to spend the next 30 years showing you this amazing world once it is safe to do so.
Until then, thanks again. We will get through this together.
Sincerely,
Leigh Barnes, Chief Customer Officer
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Footnote: The wellbeing of our customers is our priority: From Monday 16 March, Intrepid Travel will suspend all tours until at least 31 May 2020. You can find out more information on the suspension here: www.intrepidtravel.com/covid19.
Unfortunately, due to the impact of the pandemic and the overwhelming amount of comments on this letter, our team have been unable to respond to everyone. We are grateful for the kind thoughts and encouragement shared by many of you and have reached out to any travellers with cancelled trips directly to discuss their situation.
