Intrepid Travel to re-enter NZ, add local property to its global portfolio

Wednesday, 4 June 2025

The Edge of the Bay resort in Tasmania, Australia has been bought by Intrepid Travel.

Intrepid Travel is re-establishing a New Zealand base and looking to add a local property into its international portfolio of “nature-based, community led properties in beautiful locations”.

The small group adventure travel company has a new strategy, moving beyond tours and into accommodation ‒ and has just announced it has bought two new properties, the Edge of the Bay resort in Tasmania, Australia and a riad, or traditional Morrocan form of housing, in Marrakech, Morocco.

It plans to build a portfolio of “boutique” accommodation experiences that have community and impact at their core, and is aiming to buy 20 properties worldwide in the next three years.

Intrepid would also be reopening a base of operations in Auckland, and had just hired a new New Zealand country manager. While the company first opened an Auckland office back in 2018, during Covid it centralised its operations, and the New Zealand operation had been run out of the head office in Melbourne since.

Intrepid Travel Australia and New Zealand managing director Brett Mitchell said the move into accommodation came out of a reassessment of the company’s competencies, assets and long-term vision.

Intrepid Travel’s Brett Mitchell says the company has bought nature-based, community-led properties in beautiful locations.

Covid and other crises showed the company it needed to diversify in the tourism space to make sure it could ride out the ups and downs of the industry, he said.

“We looked at the ways we could diversify and areas that would fit our key competencies and interests, and identified accommodation as one of the areas we could diversify into.

“We put over one million people in bed products every year, so there is a fair bit of volume there, and some of our best and worst feedback comes from hotels. So there was scope for innovation to bring to our core competency of travel.”

The accommodation Intrepid has bought is nature-based, community-led properties in beautiful locations. They are small, with about 30 keys, and in the 3 to 4 star category.

Intrepid’s two latest additions take its accommodation portfolio to four. It purchased the Daintree Ecolodge in North Queensland in 2023 and also has a multi-year lease on a hotel in Hoi An in Vietnam.

Daintree Eco Lodge in Queensland, Australia was Intrepid Travel’s first move into accommodation.

Mitchell said the company planned to continue with that purchasing strategy when looking at potential properties, including in New Zealand.

“Ultimately, we want to provide customers with a great place to stay while they get out to experience the local area, have adventures, meet the locals, and try the cuisine.”

Mitchell said returning to New Zealand was timed with tourism’s recovery: “We believe it will be better to have the New Zealand operation run by New Zealanders from New Zealand, and it will bring us closer to our customers and partners.

“But part of the remit will also be to start looking at New Zealand properties for potential acquisitions.”

The new country manager is Simon Mckearney, former chief executive of Helloworld NZ and executive general manager of Flight Centre NZ.

Intrepid would be looking at employing 10 to 15 staff over the next 12 months, with plans to scale up gradually now that the new country manager was in place.

One of Intrepid Travel’s latest acquistions is a riad in Marrakech, Morocco.

Mitchell said the post-Covid tourism recovery was going well for the company. It had its biggest year on record last year, and was on track to be 25% up again this year.

The company was in the small group travel category, which was quite small at about 2% of the pie, but it was the fastest growing category, he said.

“The recovery is being led by the baby boomers. Our core age used to be the 20-30 age bracket, now it is the 55-plus bracket by a long way.

“It’s partly due to us developing more products in the comfort and premium range, but the age of 65 is very different now to what it used to be, much fitter and more active.”

While economic times were hard, there were a lot of people who had money and wanted to have experiences rather than buying things, and travel was one of the experiences people wanted, he said.

The certified B-Corp company’s accommodation can be booked independently of Intrepid tours. It will be responsibly operated, and designed to give customers a unique experience while giving back to the community.