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Intrepid Travel: From backpackers to Australia's biggest B Corp
By Administrator | 6 August 2018
Manchester started Intrepid Travel over 30 years ago with his uni mate Darrell Wade after backpacking around Africa and spotting an opportunity for a new kind of travel business.
A unique selling point before the phrase existed
"We started thinking about how there must be a lot of people who are not confident enough to go backpacking," Manchester tells Fairfax Media. "We spent a lot of time talking about how that could work and, in reality, what we were doing was creating the unique selling points of Intrepid, not that that term or phrase existed back then."
Eschewing the big bus tours common at the time, the pair organised small groups of up to 12 people and guaranteed the departure of trips so Intrepid bore the risk of cancellations rather than travellers.
"Travel agents loved that, so that really helped us grow," Manchester says.
That growth has continued with Intrepid recording $320 million in turnover last year and employing 250 staff in Australia and 1800 globally.
However, the business has faced challenges. Read more
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