Darrell Wade, co-founder and chairman of the world-renowned travel agency Intrepid, is currently in Kathmandu on a three-day visit to Nepal. In the program organized to welcome him, he interacted with tourism professionals about global tourism as well as the promotion and prosperity of Nepal’s tourism sector.

“Rather than the quantity of tourists, quality of tourists will have a greater impact on the tourism sector. We have been sending tourists to Nepal since the inception of Intrepid. In my opinion, if Nepal puts more emphasis on bringing qualitative tourists rather than more tourists, the overall tourism sector will develop and prosper,” Wade said.

At the event, Wade also recalled how the establishment of Intrepid was possible because of Nepal.

“In 1984, short after my university studies, I went on a tour of South-East Asia for three months,” he said, “I understood that traveling not only changes life but also changes the way of looking at the world. I wanted more people to experience such inspiring journey, thus Intrepid was born.”

Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Intrepid has been providing tours to various tourist areas in 150 countries around the world from its offices in 28 countries including Nepal. Intrepid is one of the world’s top travel companies facilitating the highest number of tourists.

In 2023, Intrepid facilitated 250,000 tourists visit different countries, out of which 4,000 tourists came to Nepal. They have set a goal of bringing 5,000 tourists to Nepal in 2024.

Wade also complained that many companies take tourists to different places but keep them away from the originality of that place. However, he insisted that Intrepid is not a company that only sells travel packages, but sells real experience.

“We don’t consider visiting a new place as just a visit. In order for the tour to be successful, it must be close to the community, travel should be more of a ‘cultural exchange,” he said, “Intrepid’s core belief is that if a tourist is getting or experiencing something new during the visit, the community something in return.”

Intrepid won the award of the Most Innovative Company 2024 for the fourth consecutive time such principles and living up to those principles. Not only in awards, Intrepid has been excelling in the number of tourists setting a record in 2023. Intrepid became the travel company sending the highest number of tourists worldwide. Intrepid has played a significant role in reviving the tourism sector in the world after the COVID pandemic.

In Nepal, Intrepid has played an important role not only for the upliftment of tourism but also in the upliftment of the community. Intrepid has been organizing continuous programs in collaboration with the WWF and the Australian government to help the local and indegenious community of Madi, Chitwan through homestays after the earthquake and COVID.

Wade said that Intrepid is also playing a leading role in solving the garbage problem that is prevalent in the Everest region. Intrepid started and has been funding the ‘Take Me Back’ program. Under this program, in collaboration with the organization called ‘Sagarmatha Next’, domestic and foreign tourists visiting Everest Region either to climb Mount Everest or trekking to the Base Camp are mandated to bring back a bag of garbage when they return to Kathmandu. This has helped a lot in reducing the garbage problem that has been prevalent in the Everest region for years.

Intrepid, in an exemplary manner, has been not just been promoting tourism but also making travel a sustainable development and environment-friendly package around the world. For which, they also became the first travel company to get the B-Corp Certification.

The two founders of Intrepid, Darrell Wade and Jeff Manchester, are currently touring their 28 offices around the world. They are visiting to determine the company’s strategy for 2030. They aim to increase their yearly revenue of 600+ million to 1 Billion by 2030.

Intrepid was also included in the list of 100 influential companies of Times magazine in 2023.

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