After dodging corporate jobs to find a way to keep traveling, Darrell Wade was, as he says, pretty content with life when his business took off. But the climate crisis was not yet on his radar.
The Australian entrepreneur was on holiday in Botswana in 2005, just after winning a responsible travel award, when he read The weather makers – a book by scientist Tim Flannery describing the causes and consequences of global warming. “I felt elated and then I read that book. And I thought: Damn, we’re a disaster, we’re doing the wrong thing.”
The co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel – the world’s largest travel company recognized as a B Corporation for its social and environmental achievements – Wade seems genial and self-deprecating, often laughing but not lashing out. Minutes earlier he had told delegates attending the Abta convention, the annual gathering of the British travel industry, that their climate record was a clear “failure”, leading to a brief outbreak of self-flagellation in the conference hall in Bodrum, Turkey.
After years of advocating for sustainability standards within the industry, Wade told them, he had found that one in three travel companies were still “actively hostile” to policies aimed at reducing travel’s carbon footprint. Another third were ambivalent – and the better ones weren’t doing enough.
This also applies to his own company, he admits – even though Intrepid’s adventure travel holidays have been rated as carbon neutral since 2010. “So in theory we are doing our part, but the reality is we weren’t. enough.”
That carbon audit, as Wade acknowledges, has one very big caveat: Intrepid does not sell the flights that take its customers, mainly from Britain, the US and Australia, to the starting point of their low-impact, sustainable trips. Isn’t that a bit like Heathrow proudly claiming to be net zero, if it weren’t for all those pesky planes? “That’s right, it’s very similar,” he says. “Consumers want to go on holiday. Let’s say half of those holidays are related to aviation – we need to get our sector in order.”
He believes there is a role for offsets and ultimately sustainable aviation fuels when (or if) they are made from green hydrogen on a large scale. But, he says, travel must move from relying on offsets to “certainly now reducing emissions per person per day.” “Offsets have to be credible,” he says. “And right now they’re not. That is the reality.”
There are good business incentives to go greener, Wade points out, not least the cost savings on fuel bills. And despite there being no direct answer to the carbon footprint of travel, he claims: “You just have to hold people’s feet to the fire, talk about it, [say] that hey, we have a problem. And all the rhetoric in the world won’t solve this problem. You need taxation, you need regulation, you need media pressure – you need lawsuits as a last resort.”
We really go for cultural immersion, to quite extreme lengths – sometimes even rubbing our passengers’ noses in all aspects of the country
Wade co-founded Intrepid in Australia in 1989 after a brief foray into the corporate world after university and travel. He hoped to create the kind of company he actually wanted to travel with, but it didn’t exist – something for the ex-backpacker who liked to see the world that way but only had a few weeks off from work each year.
After almost leaving the startup for a paid job and a higher salary when he had his first child, he stayed with it, with ultimately lucrative results. Wade stepped down as CEO in 2017 to enjoy more travel time, but still owns most of the company along with co-founder Geoff Manchester (“I don’t know if I’m what you call fabulously rich, but I’m doing well me,” he admits.)
French investors Genairgy, co-owner of sports retailer Decathlon, bought a 30% stake in 2021. Intrepid took more than 145,000 people on tour in 112 countries in 2022 and aims to be a A$1 billion (£520 million) group by 2030. , with a current annual growth rate of 25%.
“The market seems to be moving our way,” says Wade, referring to the convergence of “global megatrends” around sustainability, connection and experiences. “We are in that good place. We grow despite ourselves. I don’t think we’re particularly smart, we’re just in the right place.”
Wade differentiates Intrepid from other rivals now entering this market, saying: “We really go for cultural immersion, to fairly extreme lengths – sometimes even rubbing our passengers’ noses in all aspects of the country, good or bad.”
The main practical difference is the use of less conventional accommodation and more public transport. “It just has that vitality. It is not necessarily more comfortable – sometimes it is the opposite – but it is interesting and essential,” he says.
Related: ‘I Was Eating Too Much’: The Founders of the Zoe Nutrition App on Diet, Raising Millions, and the Perfect Microbiome
“I hate places like this,” he adds, meaning the all-inclusive resort where Abta’s conference is taking place. Wade is here, he says, at the urging of his wife (“the original communist”) to use the platform to call for change. “Because in places like this you never talk to people. If you don’t have that, you miss one of the great benefits of travel, and that is the exchange of ideas.”
Overall, Wade says he doesn’t feel guilty about being in a role that promotes travel around the world, but he does have a sense of responsibility: “We have a lot to answer for, especially around climate change. The downside of that is that I think the sector also has a lot to be proud of.
“Although we put pressure on ourselves, the travel industry is doing an incredible amount of good. I really think it has probably lifted more people out of poverty than the international NGO sector, just by the money we spend. So even though I would say from an environmental perspective that we shouldn’t get on planes, there is also the other side of the coin, which is extremely beneficial. It is that complex.”
CV
Age 62
Family Married with three adult children.
Education Degree in economics from the University of Melbourne.
Pay About A$200,000 (£105,000) – “but to be honest dividends are probably the most important thing.”
Last holiday Traveling through countries around East Africa with his wife.
The best advice he’s received From his father, just before he founded Intrepid: “Just get started with it. If it doesn’t work, don’t worry.”
Biggest career mistake Selling part of the company to Tui before a possible split – “We gave them a lot of money and started again.”
Phrase he uses too much “No dramas!”
How he relaxes Walking and long hot baths.
Abta arranged The Observer’s travel to its travel convention in Bodrum