James Thornton
Iceland
Vietnam
Nepal
Machu Picchu
West Africa
Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton swapped finance for a career in ethical travel. Here, he tells us about the company’s evolution and record growth, and explains the importance of responsible tourism and purpose-driven expansion.
Founded in 1989, and operating in more than 100 countries, Intrepid Travel has grown from a two-man operation into a global leader in responsible tourism, offering immersive, life-changing adventures for small groups that prioritise sustainability and cultural connections which benefit local communities.
The company achieved $626m in revenue in 2024, a figure which sits proudly alongside a record-breaking 287,113 clients – travelling across seven continents – the same year. Such performance metrics, meanwhile have translated as $12.8m in bonuses – in the form of cash and shares in shareholding schemes – to eligible employees.
Through doubling down on carbon reduction and its climate action goals, Intrepid Travel has concurrently become one of the world’s largest travel B-Corps, with a score of 102.5 points – placing it on the same echelon as various world-leading B Corp businesses from other sectors – as well as the raising of more than $2.4m for local partners in 39 countries around the world last year through The Intrepid Foundation.
If purpose and profit can’t go hand in hand, James Thornton never got the memo.
After university, I worked in private client asset management – a flash way of saying I made rich people richer.
I realised I didn’t want to spend the next 40 years of my life doing that. It felt soulless. I wanted to follow something I was passionate about, which I know sounds a bit naive, but I kind of figured, if I was passionate about it and worked hard, I might do okay.
I stumbled upon a small Australian adventure travel company expanding in London. They needed a sales rep to promote their programmes across the UK and Europe. It sounded fun, so I travelled around the UK and Scandinavia, selling the Intrepid programme – and I loved it. The business was entrepreneurial, fast-growing and values-driven.
As the company grew, so did its people. After moving to Australia, I spent two years in sales and marketing roles before returning to the UK in 2011 to lead UK operations and global sales. When my son was just born, I was offered the role of Intrepid’s first non-founding MD in Australia. We moved when he was three months old, and I’ve been with the company ever since. After 12 years, I became Group MD, and then Group CEO in 2017, continuing to lead our growth and mission.
We doubled the business, and did some awesome things, such as becoming a certified B-Corp – and then the pandemic hit. We navigated that, secured a French investor, and are now 50% bigger than we were before the pandemic.
In 2024, we re-certified as a B-Corp, achieving our highest score of 102.5 points, which places us among world-leading B Corp businesses.
Darrell Wade, Intrepid’s co-founder and chair, has been my mentor for 20 years. He has 10 ideas a day and he wants them done by lunch time. Of those 10 ideas, three or four are absolutely world class, and can be implemented immediately. Three or four of those ideas would send us broke and I bury, another three or four as we toss around.
Darell’s the entrepreneur; I’m the executor. Sometimes he’s frustrated by my approach, and sometimes I’ll want him to leave me alone and let me get on with it. But together, we’re stronger – both as a team and as friends.
Typically, until recently, my key people have been older, more successful, and more established than me. It was about getting great people who complemented the few things I was good at. And that really proved to be a hallmark of my success.
Believe in people who are hungry, humble and smart, and secondly, recognise that you have two ears and one mouth: leaders are often too consumed by their own voice. It’s your job as a leader to listen – and when you speak, it’s got to be for a good reason.
Being a B-Corp doesn’t mean we’ve got it all sorted. We’re open to the fact we’re not perfect. At Intrepid, we set big, bold targets – such as growing our business by 18%. And while we succeed in some areas, we fall short in others – but we’re transparent about both.
We haven’t been able to decarbonise at the rate we’d hoped, but nevertheless, we’re still turning down products I know would help us grow faster, because they’ll negatively impact our carbon reduction goals.
It’s hard to grow delivering both good returns to shareholders and having a positive impact on local communities. But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.
It was so exciting to build our 2030 strategy. We built it entirely in-house – no external advisors, no consultants: just a couple of key people from Intrepid, sitting around my kitchen table two years ago. We had great input from our core management team and our board, and came up with something exciting.
2024 was the best all-round performance in Intrepid’s 35-year history. We recorded revenue of $626m and we’ve shared this success with our global team. By the end of 2024, we had 555 staff shareholders. That same year, our not-for-profit, The Intrepid Foundation, raised more than $2.4m for local partners in 39 countries.
Our customers are happier than ever. We’ve recorded an all-time high Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 81.5, up 4.5 points from 2023, placing us in the world-leading category of service brands. Internally, we also saw our employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) reach an all-time high of 64, demonstrating how engaged our 3,399 staff and tour leaders are.
We’re continuing our global expansion. In 2025, we’re investing further in the North American market with a new sales and marketing office in Seattle, as well as launching new country offices (DMCs) around the world. Our latest DMC in Denmark [hyperlink to news story] opened in March 2025, and in February, we acquired Dutch travel company Sawadee Reizen, which will lead to a new operation in Amsterdam.
In business, making decisions – and making mistakes – is crucial. As a company grows, the decisions you make have more magnitude and influence. And when you make decisions, you make mistakes. But it’s about getting comfortable with the fact you’re going to make mistakes and not beating yourself up about it.
Running has always been my thing and it’s still how I clear my head. I’ve done five marathons now, and while it’s not intentional, I almost always have three key ideas that come to me every time I run that I need to implement the moment I get back.
Surround yourself with great people. I can’t drum that in enough. It’s not just about me or Darrell; it’s about our incredible team. They’re the ones who truly make Intrepid great.