The travel industry is a game changer. While considerations of climate change, excess of social equity, are intensifying, travelers are asking for more corporations and making difficult choices possible about their travel destinations. The wait for many is clear: tourism will have to not only minimize the damage, but actively contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive world.
Intrepid Travel, a B-Corporate rated since 2018, has been a leader in guilty tourism. whether morally and commercially successful.
I recently spoke with Leigh Barnes, president of the Americas at Intrepid Travel, to understand how the company is integrating sustainability and even into its growth strategy through the elimination of short-haul flights, supporting Indigenous businesses, and women launching an expanded portfolio of guided guided tours in the interior of the United States
Also, at a time when safe corporations are slowing down diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, double fearless. Their partnerships with organizations like the Nomadness Travel Tribe and their commitment to shifting tourism dollars to underrepresented communities reflect a broader vision: an industry that is not only more culpable but also more equitable. In our verbal exchange below, Barnes explains why REs expect corporations to act with integrity, and how Intrepid sets a new popular for what sustainable tourism deserves to look at.
Christopher Marquis: I see intrepid travel doubling in the Americas. Why there and how will sustainability and inclusion be incorporated into your efforts?
Leigh Barnes, President of the Americas at Intrepid Travel
Leigh Barnes: Our vision is: fearless companionship should be a family call in the United States, we make ambitious moves to bring travel to the goal they visit.
We open a headquarters of the Northwest of the Pacific to a greater service of ERS and partners in North America, and build the largest guided portfolio in the interior of the United States to comply with the development call for assets and founded on nature. We also extend shorter and more available trips designed for fashion explorers who seek flexibility without sacrificing depth.
Sustainability is not an elegant word for us, but the norm we have. Intrepid is now in the upper point of frame B in the world, the state throughout Patagonia as one of the world’s maximum corporations in the world. We have been impartial in carbon since 2010, however, we go beyond reimbursement to reduce emissions at the source. We invest in the tourism directed locally, we associate with indigenous guides and network projects to ensure that the dollars of remaining in local savings and the elimination of plastics for single use, relief of waste and conservation.
Inclusion in adventure travel is long overdue, and we make sure it’s no longer an afterthought. This year, bold plans to integrate 19 new reports that support women’s journeys.
Marqués: As the opposition to the projects dei develops in safe spaces, how intrepid it remains its values?
Barnes: Tourism has the strength to replace lives. While others are retiring on Dei, we are doubling. The responsible trip is rarely very fair where it goes: it is who benefits and who has a seat at the table. That is why we invest in creators of Bipoc, indigenous suppliers and companies owned by women worldwide, because genuine have the effect on action, not empty promises. We are here to remodel the travel economy for better.
For example, we have established an association with Nomadness Travel Tribe, a network of 40,000 members who create a safe area for black and brown ERS. Its founder, Evita Robinson, helped shape our moral marketing rules in 2021, and since then we have invested only around $ 200,000 in tutoring, sponsorship and subsidies for Bipoc -Creadores and stories narrators. Our content collaborations have reached more than 2 million people in biological way, video perspectives of more than 3 million. But it is bigger than marketing, it is about turning stories.
Marquis: Tell me more about the creation of the intrepid Travel Foundation in the United States. What will be this base?
Barnes: As a non -profit organization of intrepid trips, the Intrepid Foundation was created in 2002 to give travelers more opportunities to repair the puts they visit. By having an effect on partners in more than 35 countries, travelers can donate local organizations to create a global effect. During the beyond 20 years, our intrepid network of the Foundation has raised more than $ 18 million for more than 160 network members.
In the United States, we will be a non -profit 501C recorded in 2025 and we know that this will help us to have an even more vital effect on the world. Our American has an effect on the partners that come with the conservation of the Grand Canyon, the blacks on trips, tourism and water first.
Marqués: Do you think consumers care about sustainability and equity?What are your comments?
Barnes: Today’s ERs are not only looking for great vacations, but they should know that their dollars have a positive impact. Sustainability and justice are no longer “pleasant to have”; These are expectations. We see it from the first hand in Intrepid, because our consumers are actively looking for a low impact, LED reports locally and are attracted through our carbon relief initiatives, indigenous tourist associations and a commitment to Dei.
The comments were clear: travelers need authenticity and are guilty companies. They ask questions about everything, how local savings to the measures we take to reduce emissions. That is why we are not only talking about sustainability, resolve us through movements such as the realization of one of the highest B corp scores in the industry, being impartial carbon since 2010, and ensuring that 34% of our supplier expenses Global depend on women belonging to women companies.
Marqués: What sustainable trends are you noticing among consumers?
Barnes: 75% of travelers say they plan to travel more sustainable next year, and more from part are actively looking for means to reduce their energy intake on the road. This replacement is not just a trend; This is a basic replacement in the way other people decide to travel. There is an expanding movement towards “diversion destinations”, known and cultivated that offer deeper and more immersive reports without the crowd or injury to surprise.
When tourist dollars are spent on off-track destinations, they fuel local savings that may be overlooked in a different way. At the same time, the spread of tourism is helping to ease the strain on overburdened cities, protective herbal environments, and cultural heritage for long-term generations. More meaningful travel, more balanced economies, and a healthier planet – it’s the long run of tourism.
Some of the positions that we highlight this year in our non -hot annual list include:
Marquis: Since the last time I talked to other people in Intrepid Travel in 2022, it was recently picked up as B Corp. What projects are helping to consolidate this recognition? Why be B Corp for the company?
Barnes: travelers need corporations that their values with a genuine action, and in Intrepid, we turn out that this purpose and benefit pass from the hand. When we receive the certification for the first time in 2018, we make the decision to produce that trips can be a force for Passod, and with our recent rectification and a 102. 5 B Corp record, we are not only retaining, we direct the position. .
It is not a consultation of verifying sustainability boxes, but of fundamentally converting the functioning of hiking. We were the world’s main excursion operator to claim a meteorological emergency, and we make measurable genuine changes. We have eliminated key routes short films, invested in electric shipping and redesigned trips to count more about hiking, cycling and public shipping. Our goal? Cut the emissions through 2035 and succeed in the network from 0 to 2050.
But sustainability is not just to protect the planet, it is a consultation of who benefits from tourism. Too often, dollars never succeed in communities that want them maximum. 34% of our global suppliers spending pass to corporations that belong to women, compared to only 1% for maximum multinational corporations. When ERS decides on Intrepid, his effective feeds local businesses, conservation projects and the communities they want. Being B corp helps to stay guilty, and we would not do it otherwise.
Marqués: What is the next being for Intrepid in 2025? How will the limits continue to push and remain in your values?
Barnes: Intrepid demonstrates that this purpose and benefit can pass by the hand, evolving in a way that makes the adventure more immersive, lasting and inclusive while remains faithful to our values.
For the first time, we are launching a fearless home, creating remains that reflect our commitment to sustainability and cultural authenticity. We expanded our Pacific Northwest headquarters to greater service from North American ERS and partners, and built the largest guided portfolio of Backcountry in the United States, answering the call to active, nature-based form in a way that puts conservation first.
But expansion of expansion is the fearless way. We are targeting sustainability and justice: through the reduction of source emissions, through strengthening partnerships with Aboriginal and Bipococ-owned corporations and Industry Leader as a top B Corp.
Not only do we stick to trends, we give them. 2025 It is about demonstrating that trips promoted by objectives are rarely imaginable, it is the only way to follow.