By Hazel McGuire, CMO at Intrepid Travel
At Intrepid, we believe that travel can be a force for good — not just for our customers, but in communities and destinations too. That’s why we’re thrilled to sponsor Earthfest – an event that celebrates the brands and individuals who champion the same purpose-led ethos.
As a certified B Corp, we see Earthfest as a powerful place to champion the changes our industry — and our world — urgently needs.
We are entering an era where conscious capitalism is under threat — with the recent backlash against DEI and climate action, led by the Trump administration in the US. We feel we cannot afford to sit back and watch — we can and must step up to face the world’s biggest challenges. For Intrepid, our customers, and the travel industry as a whole, one of the most urgent is the climate crisis.
Climate change isn’t a future threat — it’s here now. Last year was the hottest year on record. We’ve seen flooding, wildfires, and heatwaves in many destinations we love to visit. And of course, earthquakes, in Myanmar and Thailand, and most recently, Turkey. As an industry, the travel sector cannot ignore the fact that we contribute to climate emergencies. Tourism is responsible for roughly 11% of global emissions, and if nothing changes, the UN says tourism-related emissions could increase by at least 25% by 2030.
As one of the first signatories to the Glasgow Declaration at COP26 in 2021, Intrepid has demonstrated a genuine commitment to acting on climate. But we know there is more to be done as we feel the impacts of the climate crisis bearing down on us in unprecedented ways. As an industry, we need more transparent reporting against goals, stronger collaboration and increased innovation.
Last year, we introduced carbon labels across our trips. These labels tell travellers the carbon footprint of each tour — per passenger per day. The emissions are calculated by identifying the different components making up the overall carbon footprint, including accommodation, transport, food, activities, local office emissions, and waste. A 15% contingency is then added to account for anything unintentionally missing.
The purpose of these labels is so that travellers can understand the impact of their trips and take this into account in making a booking decision. But the onus is not just on our customers. This is also a way to hold ourselves accountable for the emissions that we are creating through our operations. The saying goes that you can’t reduce what you don’t measure, and these labels provide us with a constant reminder of our global carbon footprint.
We’ve also open-sourced our approach to calculating them, encouraging other travel businesses to adopt similar transparency mechanisms. And we report on our overall impact in our Integrated Annual Report, which is publicly available. Transparency is essential to building trust.
But with 87% of our emissions in our supply chain, we cannot do this alone. At Intrepid, we’ve spent the past two years engaging with our suppliers to better understand where they are at on their decarbonisation journey, and this has exposed some significant challenges.
This has also given us a snapshot of climate action in the tourism industry globally – an industry that is predominantly made up of small to medium sized businesses.
Of our 1,000 plus SMEs that make up our supply chain in 26 destinations, only 59 are measuring their carbon footprint, 26 are using 100% renewable energy, while 20 are carbon neutral. I would guess a similar problem exists across the industry, yet few are comprehensively measuring and reporting on their supplier profile.
So what can we do to encourage action? At Intrepid, we are supporting our suppliers to take the first step in decarbonising by measuring their emissions, starting with providers in Vietnam, Thailand, Morocco and Ecuador. And we are sharing this data with destinations and global bodies to inspire action and investment.
I want to make it clear that Intrepid is far from perfect. As a global tour operator, decarbonising while also growing our business poses a constant challenge. But that’s why we’re leaning on our legacy of acting on the climate crisis for nearly two decades to make our commitment stronger than ever.
This isn’t a story unique to Intrepid. Research by Accenture on responsible leadership shows that companies with strong sustainability performance enjoy operating margins that are, on average, 3.7 times higher than those of lower performers. They also deliver 2.6 times higher annual returns to shareholders.
And now, more than ever, we need the positive benefits of our industry to scale. Travel is one of the best ways to transfer money from richer to poorer countries. It’s an important driver of cultural preservation and exchange. And through awareness and education, we can better protect the destinations we know and love.
Communities are at the heart of our business. In many countries where we operate, we have maintained long-term relationships with communities to create employment opportunities, support cultural heritage and elevate marginalised groups over our 35 years of business.
At Intrepid, 84% of our suppliers are locally owned too — and that’s no accident. By working with local businesses and guides, we help ensure that tourism dollars stay in the communities we visit. These businesses pay taxes that are reinvested into their regions, supporting infrastructure, services, and long-term development. It’s a powerful way to create a positive impact through travel.
What’s more, employing local people doesn’t just generate income — it also brings valuable insight. Locals often have a far deeper understanding of the issues affecting their communities, including challenges like overtourism.
We know people will always want to visit hotspots like Barcelona, Venice, and Dubrovnik — they attract crowds for good reason!
But there are ways to help mitigate the impact of overtourism. For example, we’ve added more departures during the shoulder seasons for some of our best-selling itineraries to help spread tourism more evenly throughout the year. For example, clients can now book our Mainland Greece Discovery and Best of Spain tours in February, March, October and November.
We’re also putting more focus on tours closer to home, including an expanded range of European trips and exciting new destinations like Greenland. Last year, we introduced a dedicated rail range, which has already seen strong traction — with UK bookings for rail trips up 86% year-on-year in 2024.
But there are plenty of other ways to minimise the impact of travel on destinations. Investing in community-led tourism helps support locally owned businesses, guides, and experiences, ensuring that tourism revenue stays local and fosters long-term sustainability.
We must also work with our partners to deliver consistent messaging about responsible travel, cultural respect, and environmental impact, both before and after a trip. However, working with local communities should be a two-way conversation — do they even want visitors, and are they willing to share certain aspects of their culture?
Grassroots initiatives can drive lasting impact by empowering charities, funding local projects, and promoting sustainable development. At Intrepid, we believe in the power of local knowledge — that’s why our regional teams select their own charity partners.
One great example is Education For All, an organisation that empowers girls from rural and underserved regions of Morocco by providing access to secondary and higher education. Since its inception in 2007, 677 girls have benefited from the project, with 203 going on to university — three of whom have completed postgraduate degrees.
Supporting grassroots initiatives helps us avoid the pitfalls of charitable efforts at scale, for example, money not getting to the people that need it, and ensure positive impact is directed straight to the heart of the community
Intrepid might be a tour operator, but we are also firmly against tourism that disregards a destination’s capacity to sustain travel as we know it. And we are firmly against burying our head in the sand when it comes to our impact on the environment. Travel should enrich, not overwhelm, the places we visit.
We are advocating for a model of tourism that uplifts, drives fair economic opportunities, protects environments, and shares benefits with everyone involved. And we hope others will join us on this journey.
Travel is the thread that connects us all. Together, we can continue to make it a force for good.