Intrepid Travel, the world’s leading sustainable tour operator, has reimagined its product line during its post-COVID rebuild to incorporate both new and amended itineraries with lower carbon footprints.
According to Sustainable Brands, Intrepid Travel has been carbon neutral since 2010. In October 2020, it became the world’s first tour operator with verified science-based climate targets, operating in line with the 1.5°C future deemed necessary by the IPCC in 2019.
In accordance with its decarbonization work, Intrepid Travels has introduced over 40 low-carbon alternative tours. The tour operator is also switching out carbon-intensive inclusions for more sustainable activities. Moreover, Intrepid Travels released an open-source guide for carbon reduction for tourism businesses.
New carbon-free itineraries
Intrepid Travels’ decarbonization plan will remove 90-minutes flights or less from its top 50 itineraries by 2022. As a replacement, the tour operator has traded internal flights for high-speed rail on most of its trips in China — and keeps making similar changes elsewhere.
Being a responsible traveller
According to Sustainable Brands, during the past year, Intrepid Travels has increased its portfolio of walking- and cycling-based trips, recognizing that they are some of the lowest carbon-output trip styles — while also being in high demand, as travelers seek active, outdoor adventures following months of indoor quarantining.
The company focused on more travel options closer to home in its major source markets of Australia, the UK and the US, resulting in the addition of 25 new walking tours and 15 new cycling tours in these destinations. Examples include:
In addition, Intrepid Travel also took a great commitment to reducing the carbon output of its trips by looking to its supply chain. In the recent Intrepid Premium trip range — tours geared toward high-end travelers — there was a concerted focus in identifying and contracting more accommodation using renewable energy sources. The company is also trialing electric vehicles for its travelers’ arrival transfers in several destinations such as Jordan and Iran. Each of these efforts will continue to be integrated into all Intrepid Travel trips moving forward.
Do you need inspiration for your next (sustainable) trip? Take a look here at the wide "close-to-home" variety of destinations.
