Sustainable travel co-operation

THE strategic alliance between Intrepid Grp & Chimu Adventures ( page two) took only five months to come to fruition, says Intrepid ceo James Thornton.

Thornton, who was appointed chief of the global adventure travel specialist back in Mar, says since the separation from TUI two years ago, the company has flourished being free to make its own choices moving forward.

“Being privately owned and independent again means we can charter our own destiny, rather than having to get board and shareholder approvals”.

Since the TUI split, “it’s really brought back that entrepreneurial spirit to the business and now we’re seeing record growth from all markets,” he explained.

Chimu’s Chad Carey said that aside from common synergies and growth potential of the pact, he and fellow co-founder Greg Carter were excited about working in a “similarly culturally aligned organisation”.

Carter said Intrepid’s sustainable tourism projects have achieved some fantastic work and would tie-in closely with Chimu’s own projects in Latin America and support for Australian charities.

“There’s a lot of common alignments especially lately there’s been a lot of talk about orphanage tourism, elephants in Asia and animal tourism.

“So we have very common thoughts on a lot of these topics with Intrepid.

“It’s really refreshing to work with an independently owned Australian company who sees the world through our eyes as well,” Carter told Travel Daily.

Thornton added, “Given the experiences we had with partnerships it just makes you realise how important it is to partner with people that have a similar set of values and a similar ethos as to the way you operate your business.”

Pictured at Intrepid’s HQ in Melbourne this morning flanking Thornton are Chimu Adventures’ co-founders, Greg Carter (left) and Chad Carey (right).