Sustainable Management and Marketing at Intrepid Travel

This report explores the sustainable management and marketing strategies adopted by Intrepid Travel, a responsible tour operator company. It covers their vision, mission, values, HRM strategies, and leadership styles. The report also provides recommendations for improving their performance and attaining competitive advantage in the global tourism industry.

Running Head: Sustainable Management and Marketing
Intrepid Travel
Sustainable Management and Marketing

Sustainable Management and Marketing 1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Planning...........................................................................................................................................4
Intrepid Travel’s goal setting practices and plans........................................................................5
Travel Approach..........................................................................................................................5
Sustainability approach................................................................................................................6
Human Resource Management........................................................................................................7
Leadership........................................................................................................................................9
Value Chain and Technology........................................................................................................11
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Sustainable Management
Executive Summary
Management includes various activities which help in developing strategies to attain objectives
of an organisation. Under this report, management activities of Intrepid Travel will be covered
for analysing the effectiveness of managing functionalities performed by the management team
of the organization. With context to the organizational management department, opportunities
for the organization for expanding its business in the global market will be discussed and along
with this, the impact of external environmental factors will also be covered under this report in
relevance with the functionalities of the Intrepid Travel. Apart from this, global competitive
analysis and other relevant analysis will be conducted for analysing the effectiveness of the
organizational management functionalities. In the last phase of the report, relevant
recommendations will be provided to the organizational context for improving their performance
as well as to attain appropriate competitive advantage in the global tourism industry.

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Introduction
Intrepid Travel is an adventurous tour operator company. It is largest amongst the world in terms
of small level companies of tourism industry. The company offers more than 1500 routes and
destinations in approximately 120 countries. Asia, Latin America, North America, The Middle
East, Antarctica and Europe are some of the attractive destinations. Organization's major concern
is to promote the adventurous tourism across the globe and it is a responsible tour operator
company regulated under United Nations Global Compact. In 2016, company distributed $5
million for improving the healthcare facilities, human rights, child welfare, etc. Organization was
found in 1988 by two Australians and its headquarters is situated in Melbourne, Australia. With
its effective and responsible functionalities, organization has been awarded many times and Ernst
and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, 2002 and Winner of the PATA (Pacific Asia Travel
Association) Gold Award for Corporate Environmental Programme, 2007 are some of the
biggest achievements of Intrepid Travel. Organization has developed its effective position in the
adventurous tourism industry across the globe and more than 1600 employees are linked to the
organization for improving and maintaining its image in the global tourism industry.

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Planning
Vision of Intrepid Travel
Organization is engaged in the adventurous tourism industry at small level and in their industry,
they are known as the leading tour operator for executing adventurous traveling. With this
objective, organization has adopted the terms accountability and responsibility from the very first
day of their start up in order to prevent various rights of humans as well as to serve them in an
adequate and effective manner. Intrepid Travel has invested used to invest a big part of their
revenues towards prevention of human rights, welfare practices, wildlife projects and towards
several environmental projects. Organization’s primary vision is to provide real life experience
to the travellers so as to incorporate their principles of sustainable tourism and development.
Management of the Intrepid Travel has developed their vision statement so as to attain the
sustainable growth in the global tourism industry. To attain the sustainable growth, organization
has adopted several advanced strategies so as to fulfil the needs and requirements of the
travellers (Intrepid Travel Group, 2017).
Mission of Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel's management has developed their mission to serve the most advanced and
effective services along with providing their traveller's real life experiences. The primary motive
of every traveller in adventurous travelling is to experience the most unique and unforgettable
movements. Intrepid Travel has made their mission statement on the basis of expectations of the
travellers. This has helped them to attain the desired goals and the objectives in the tourism
industry and with the help of this mission statement, organization will be able to ascertain the
opportunities to acquire the sustainable growth and expansion in the global tourism industry
(Intrepid Travel Group, 2017).
Values of Intrepid Travel
With the objective to provide real life experience to the travellers, Intrepid Travel has adopted
and developed certain value in order to save the environment and wildlife. To execute this, a
non-profit organization has been commended for addressing the issues such as healthcare,

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community development, animal welfare, etc. Organization does not execute its functionalities to
earn profits and growth only; they have evaluated and adopted 9 out of 17 United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals for enhancing the value of the global tourism industry. With the
help of these values, objectives, and goals, organization has managed to stand on the peak
position in world's adventurous tourism industry (Intrepid Travel Group, 2017).
Intrepid Travel’s goal setting practices and plans
Intrepid Travel set up its goals for attaining the desired position in the near future. As the
organization is already enjoying the peak position in the adventurous tourism industry, thus; they
have developed their goals so as to attain the sustainable growth in the dynamic business
environment. Along with this, the objective of sustainable growth, organization is also seeking
for enhancing their travellers' experience so as to enhance their market share and to enhance their
goodwill in the target market. Apart from this, organization believes in fulfilling the needs of the
travellers in terms of providing them real life experiences which are the major objective of
adventurous travelling (Intrepid Travel Group, 2017).
Plans are made in order to attain the desired goals and the objectives which are crucial in order to
attain the sustainable growth. Primary objective of the organization is to expand their business in
the global market and to enhance the traveller’s experience in an appropriate manner. Along with
this, organization has developed certain advanced strategies for evaluating the most appropriate
ways for attaining the expected outcomes (Intrepid Travel Group, 2017).
Travel Approach
Intrepid Travel has adopted innovative and modern approach for planning their functionalities.
With the help of mixture of the modern and innovative approach, organization has made
effective plans in order to provide optimum level of satisfaction from the adventurous travelling
experience. In terms of their approach to planning for attracting the audience towards the
adventurous travelling, organization has rendered most advanced services for fulfilling their
expectations with the travelling. Adventurous travelling is in trend these days and to make this
more attractive and unique for their target audience, Intrepid Travel has implemented the digital
media promotional techniques for enhancing the demand for their services. Intrepid Travel faces
intense pressure in terms of competition and to survive in the competitive business environment,

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Intrepid Travel needs to adopt certain innovative techniques for promoting their services and tour
packages in the global market with the view to attain its goals and the objectives (Intrepid Travel
Group, 2017).
Sustainability approach
Various organizations have adopted the suitability approaches into their functionalities in
relevance to the expectations of the society. With this, organization becomes capable enough to
sustain in the competitive business environment. Along with this, it also ensures the organization
to attain its desired goals and the objectives. In this scenario, Intrepid Travel has identified
certain set of factors for facilitating the effective integration of sustainability into organizational
functionalities. Leadership is the most crucial strategy through which organization could easily
attain its goals and the objectives in terms of adaptation of sustainability into business
operations. Along with the leadership, other crucial factors are communication system and the
training sessions for the employees of the organization. This will enhance the efficiency of the
organization and due to this, organization’s motive to integrating the sustainability into
organizational functionalities (Kang & Motohashi, 2015).

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Human Resource Management
Intrepid Travel is known for its qualitative services in relation to the adventurous tourism
industry. Intrepid Travel is on the peak position in terms of global adventurous industry as they
do not work for profits only; their major motive is customer satisfaction as well as society’s
welfare (Zeriti, et. al., 2014). HRM of the Intrepid Travel has adopted following strategies to
attain the competitive advantage in the target market:
Employee Relations: To execute the Intrepid Travel’s functionalities in appropriate manner,
management is responsible to fulfil the needs of their employees in order to influence them for
performing in an adequate manner to attain the desired goals and the objectives of organization.
Performance Management: Intrepid Travel has implemented this strategy for enhancing the
performance of its employees through providing them unique and advanced training and
development programs for enhancing their efficiencies. Ultimately, with the increased
efficiencies of employees, organization will be able to match up with its targets easily (Zhang, et.
al., 2017).
In order to find the most suitable candidate for the organization in terms of enhancing their
effectiveness will lead the organization towards the growth and expansion. Irrelevant selection
and appointment of the candidate will lead the organization towards the negative aspects. For
this, Intrepid Travel has adopted the recruitment and selection technique under which HR
department is responsible for identifying the needs of the organization on the basis of
department. After identifying the departmental needs in terms of human resources, company
invites the candidates. Invitation to the candidates could be sent through various mediums such
as digital media platforms, print mediums, and the company's official websites and through email
marketing for spreading the awareness amongst the candidates in order to hire them for the
desired position. Further, organization implements interview sections for evaluation and
identification of the talented and most suitable candidate for the position and as per the outcome,
most suitable candidate is being selected for performing the required functionalities to attain the
goals and the objectives for the organization (Lin, Li & You, 2012).

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With the help of training and development programs, Intrepid Travel has built an effective
workforce in their workplace which is capable enough to face every type of situation as well as
to gain the adequate competitive advantage in the competitive business environment of the
tourism industry. Providing training and development sessions helps the employees of the
organization to enhance the efficiency. With the increased efficiencies of its employees,
organization could easily attain its desired goals and the objectives (Jones & Robinson, 2012).
Intrepid Travel has developed an effective workforce with the help of training and development
strategies while to maintain the effectiveness of the workforce, organization has adopted the
reward management strategy. Under reward management, workforce is getting paid for their
extra efforts in an adequate manner. Getting rewarded for extra efforts and good performance
makes the employee feels motivated towards their work. Apart from this, it also helps the
organization to develop an effective relationship amongst the employees which is effective for
making an efficient workforce (Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund & Hansen, 2012).
Intrepid Travel has implemented various effective HRM strategies through which organization
could attain its goals and the objectives. The primary strategy of HRM for Intrepid Travel is
training and development and reward programs which could be said as the sustainable practices
to attain the competitive advantage in the target market as well as it also helps the organization to
attain its desired goals and the objectives (Slack, 2015).

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Leadership
Leadership at the Intrepid Travel is quite different from the other organizations. This is because
Intrepid Travel is engaged in the adventurous tourism industry and their major concern with the
leadership is enhancing their travellers’ tour experience. Leaders at Intrepid Travel are travel
experts who guide the travellers in various ways (Walker, Damanpour & Devece, 2010). Apart
from the travel experts, they also act as the teacher, travel guru, and enthusiastic purveyor of
grassroots experiences. Traveller’s faces various types of situations while travelling with the
local public, atmosphere of the particular place, and other external factors. In these conditions,
leaders of the Intrepid Travel help their travellers to cope with the uncertain conditions. Thus, it
could be said that leadership at the Intrepid Travel is quite effective in terms of attaining the
desired goals and the objectives and along with this, organization has hired local travel experts to
enhance the experience of their travellers. Local leader is helpful in various circumstances such
as they know the tradition, culture and other things about the particular place, traditional dishes
through which adventurous travelling experience could be enhanced. It is also done by resolving
the queries of their travellers and to enhance the travellers’ adventurous travelling experience
(Wilden, et. al., 2013).
Amongst numerous leadership styles, Intrepid Travel has adopted the coaching leadership and
strategic leadership style in order to enhance the organizational performance through providing
effective and efficient real life experiences to the travellers. Coaching leadership style describes
that the superiors always monitor the performances of its leaders for enhancing their capabilities
for fulfilling the travellers’ requirements through unique and advanced methods. While strategic
leadership style describes that the leader of the Intrepid Travel acts as the boss for controlling the
group of the employees as well as the travellers together. Under this leadership style, leader
always tries to find innovative and unique ways for enhancing their travellers' experience as this
will lead to increase in the overall performance of the organization (Willard, 2012).
The major leadership tactics and traits used by the Intrepid Travel’s leaders for influencing the
target audience are:

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 Intrepid Travel is a responsible tour operator company and they understand the
requirement of their travellers.
 Appointment of local leaders which is the major power through which travellers could
easily cope up with the host country’s people. It also helps the travellers to understand
the culture and the tradition of the particular place through local leaders (Mithas,
Ramasubbu & Sambamurthy, 2011).
Intrepid Travel’s leadership styles are always unique and innovative in terms of enhancing the
opportunities for the organization to lift up the values and position of the organization in the
global tourism industry. With the help of transformational and charismatic leadership styles,
organization’s efficiency is being uplifted in terms of rendering innovative and advanced
strategies to its travellers. Transformational leadership is helpful in adaptation of innovative and
unique strategies for implementing change in the workplace with the view to improve the
efficiency of the organization. While charismatic leadership style defines the procedure to
implement the strategies through requirements of the consumers could be fulfilled easily and
effectively (Mundy, 2010).
With the help of effective leadership styles which could be moulded as per the organizational
behaviour, external environmental factors as well as on the basis of travellers’ needs.
Organization has successfully implemented the leadership styles in their workplace for
incorporating the suitability in the workplace of the Intrepid Travel group (Noland & Phillips,
2010).

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Value Chain and Technology
Intrepid Travel is the world’s largest provider of sustainable adventurous tourism experience.
Organization has reached the mark of 300,000 in terms of passengers in a year. Along with this
number of passengers, they are also known for offering more than 1600 itineraries on every
continent. Apart from this, Intrepid Travel is famous for providing catering facilities for all ages
and they offer these services at various prices depending upon the budget of the individual
(Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta, 2016).
To make the adventurous trip of travellers more excited and unforgettable, Intrepid Travel has
adopted certain measures for making the tour safe, secure and risk free. Local leaders, travel
experts, and other necessary facilities are arranged in order to provide rich-travel experience to
its travellers. Along with these measures, organization is also committed to:
 Valuing the destinations in which they operates;
 Valuing local audience;
 Preventing environment;
 Contributing towards preserving the human rights, animal welfare programs, etc.;
For enhancing the performance of the organization, management of Intrepid Travel has
developed certain strategies for enhancing the value of their supply chain management in the
global tourism industry:
 Intrepid Travel has made their vision to change the way people see the world;
To make this vision into reality, organization has diversified their network with more than 1600
employees in approximately 100 countries with 24 offices globally. Along with this,
organizational primary objectives are to deliver best and unique experience to its travellers for
making their adventurous trip efficient and effective. With the help of these objectives and
vision, management of the organization has adopted certain strategies for mitigating the risks of
gaining the competitive advantage (LawTearcher, 2017). Along with these measures for
enhancing the effectiveness of the organizational supply chain management, organization has

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adopted integrity, passion to deliver right thing, innovative practices, etc. for making their
travellers’ experience unforgettable (O’Riordan & Fairbrass, 2014).
Recommendations
 It has been recommended to the Intrepid Travel Group to adopt and implement the
advanced methods of promotional techniques for enhancing the customer base in the
global market.
 As Intrepid Travel is already enjoying the peak position in the adventurous tourism
industry, they should adopt cost-leadership and other pricing strategies along with the
innovative strategies for enhancing the travellers’ experience for maintaining the peak
position.
 Customer feedback and review strategy could also be adopted for enhancing the
performance of the organization in relevance with the travellers’ requirements.

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Conclusion
From the aforesaid discussion, it can be concluded that Intrepid Travel is the world’s largest
adventurous tour operator company. To attain this position, various strategies have been
discussed under this report to analyse the effectiveness of their functionalities. Their vision is to
change the way of people to see the world and to convert this vision into reality, organization has
modified its operations as per the customer satisfaction to attain the sustainable growth.

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