HC3141 - Intrepid Travel: International Strategic Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Intrepid Travel's international strategic management, focusing on its micro and macro environments, competitive advantages, generic strategies, and growth strategies. It examines the political, economic, social, technological, and legal factors impacting the company's performance through a PESTLE analysis. The report highlights Intrepid Travel's differentiation and focus strategies, which contribute to its unique position in the adventure travel market. The company's growth strategy, centered on diversification, is also discussed, emphasizing its expansion into new countries and markets. The report concludes with strategic recommendations for Intrepid Travel, including enhancing its mobile strategy and targeting low-income groups to further increase sales and profitability. This analysis demonstrates Intrepid Travel's commitment to sustainable travel experiences and its strategic approach to becoming a global leader in the small group adventure tour industry.

International Strategic Management 0
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International Strategic Management
Student’s Name
5/31/2019

International Strategic Management 1
Introduction
Intrepid Travel was formed in the year 1989 and has grown into the world’s largest small
group adventure tour company. It covers 1000 trips across each continent and carries 1,
00,000 travellers each year across the globe. It employs more than 1000 staff and observed
54% growth in urban adventure customers (Intrepid Travel, 2019). The company recorded
$402M group gross revenue. It focuses on delivering sustainable experience rich travel
products and provides the benefit to the places and the people company visits (Intrepid, 2019)
The company designs small group adventures, day tours and destination management
companies. The company focuses on delivering the best travel experience and leaves a
positive impact on the community (Intrepid, 2019). The report will reflect upon the macro
and the microenvironment in which the company operates and will also provide insight into
the competitive advantage of the company. It will also cover the generic and growth
strategies of the company.
Macro and Micro Environment
The microenvironment includes the operating environment that directly affects the
functioning of the company. The customers of the company include the travellers who like to
travel in small adventurous group and day tours. The company has also formed private group
travel for customers who require personalised service. It mainly targets the millenials who
prefer sustainable adventure in a crowded youth travel market (Martinkenaite and Breunig,
2016).
Apart from delivering the best services the intensity of competition is high. The main
competitors include World Expeditions, Bali Food Safari, Exodus travels and Webmail. The

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company consist of global staff and leaders who are committed towards the goals of the
organization. The company focuses on engaging the employees and develops a training
programme to enhance the skills of the staff. The suppliers of the company include hotel
suppliers and the positioning of the company is directly linked to the services provided by the
suppliers. It also focuses on maintaining the long term and the short term value of its
stakeholders (Martinkenaite and Breunig, 2016).
Macro Environment
PESTLE Analysis is a framework that helps in analysing the external influences that affect
the performance of the company. It includes the following.
Political Factor
It is analysed that the uncertainty around the Brexit is increasing which in turn affects the
confidence of the customers. The changing travelling rules, wars and negative publicity about
tourism affect the performance of the company (TTRA, 2017).
Economic Factors
The Intrepid experience high volatility in currency rates due to its global operation and
developed a robust strategy to control the impact and the price fluctuations experienced by
customers. It targets the high disposable income group and pays more to its employees. The
increase in oil prices and the rate of unemployment in Australia affects the performance of
the company (Intrepid Travels.com, 2019).
Social factors
The company focuses on delivering experience over the products. It focuses on the health
consciousness and the safety of the visitors to attract potential visitors. It promotes the local
culture and the societal factors to hold the interest of the Australian visitors. The customers

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are demanding for the authentic, immersive and local experience and analysed 2500% growth
in the year 2017 which increased the opportunity for the business (Marketing Dawn, 2017)
Technological factors
The rise in Online Travel agencies has impacted the performance of the urban adventure
brand of the company that provides a unique local experience and enhances the performance
of the company. It covers a strong online presence and implements the latest technologies for
enhancing the performance and delivering value to the customers (Intrepid Travels.com.
2019)
Competitive Advantage
Intrepid travel is able to sustain the competitive advantage by providing authentic real-life
experience to the visitors. It is able to create a balance between free time and inclusions. The
company focuses on designing the programmes that ensure to engage the visitors in doing the
local things with the local people. They provide more than sightseeing and foster to provide
authentic insights about the local life and makes them understand why the place is considered
as destination tick (Sidhu and Dall’Alba, 2017).
The small group size of the tours allows the company to connect the people and take care as a
family. It ensures to connect people to the local culture and provides the hassle-free
experience. Forming of small groups helps in exploring the destinations well and creates a
good social vibe. It brings the balance between the planned activities and the time of the
visitors. The company is committed to doing the responsible business by effectively
contributing towards the community and focusing upon the protection of the environment and
the wildlife. Their strong commitment towards the responsible business allows the company
to attract the visitors and sustain the competitive advantage. It considers social responsibility

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as the heart of the business and provides maximum satisfaction to the customers (Laequee,
2018).
The company carefully designs each small group trip to create unforgettable grassroots travel
experience. It has different style trips which include Basix, Original and Comfort. Under the
Basix, it designs a simple trip which provides clean and centrally located accommodation that
suits the budget. The original trips provide a great choice of tourist class hotels and
exclusively located. Comfort style trips provide comfortable accommodations and a relaxed
pace of travel. The company provides the facility of flights, sightseeing, extra
accommodations and travel insurance to deliver best services and creates differentiation. It
has also designed a loyalty programme under which if the visitors have completed nine trips
with Intrepid travel it provides legend reward for the tenth trip. Such strategies allow the
company to attract potential customers and sustain its competitive advantage over its
competitors (Intrepid Travel, 2019).
The company is able to create a competitive advantage by managing the human resource by
providing the training to the employees and engaging the employees to make them more
committed towards the organization. It hires world-class employees who have the skills of
top-notch excellence to derive innovative solutions for the company and sustaining the
competitive advantage of the company (Intrepid Travel, 2019).
Generic Strategy
The company uses differentiation and focus as the main generic strategy to target visitors.
Under the differentiation strategy, the company differentiates its services from its competitors
by providing real-life experience to the visitors. It takes ownership of the entire customer
journey from the beginning to the end and delivers personalised services to the travellers.
Under its differentiation strategy, it ensures the safety of its customers and provides

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responsible travelling. It has designed three types of travelling styles that includes Basix,
Original and Comfort to provide the experience in accordance with the budget set by the
customers. It delivers valuable experience considering the local culture and engaging the
travellers to connect with the local culture and people. The differentiation strategy focuses on
providing sustainable experience to its travellers (Kritz, 2017).
Under the focus strategy, the company forms a small adventurous group to create the
grassroots level experience and understand the diverging needs of the travellers. It has the
policy of including diverse travellers from all over the globe and focuses on satisfying the
diverging needs of people from different cultures. It focuses on respecting all the cultures and
has created private group travel to satisfy the comprehending needs of the customers. It has
also designed a loyalty programme that provides rewards to visitors and attracts potential
customers to increase the profitability of the business. It satisfies the diverging needs in
consideration of the accommodation, transport and the meals the travellers prefer. The
company is recognised as the fastest growing company by delivering innovative services.
Under the focus strategy, it targets the higher income groups and delivers unique services to
them (Kritz, 2017).
Growth strategy
The growth strategy is the investment decision that the company takes to increase the sales
and the profit of the business. In considers various crucial factors like the financial
performance, the regulations of the government and the competition faced by the company. It
includes four types of strategies The market expansion strategy focuses on introducing the
existing products to the new market and the product expansion strategy under which the
company introduces a new product to the existing market for targeting potential customers.

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Another two strategies include market penetration and diversification strategy. Market
penetration focuses on marketing the existing products in the existing market and growth
through diversification involves introducing new products in the new market (Aune, 2016).
Intrepid Travel focuses on adopting the diversification strategy and targets the new countries
to deliver the best experience to the customers. The diversification strategy has allowed the
company to grow its business and supports the staff and the communities to rebuild and
recover. Considering the political instability and climate change issues the company focus on
diversity and covers 120 countries to expand its business operations and become the global
leader. This strategy allows the company to increase its profitability and attract travellers
from all around the globe. The diversification strategy reduces the impact on the external
environment upon the performance of the company and develops the travel plans considering
the needs of the diverging travellers (Luo, 2019).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is analysed that the Intrepid Travels has become the world’s
largest small travel group by delivering a sustainable travel experience that focuses on
providing an unforgettable grassroots experience. It is analysed that the company sustains its
competitive advantage by adopting the differentiation and focus strategy and provides a
different style of travel experience. It focuses on the diversification strategy by designing new
travel plans and covering different countries to become the global brand.
Strategic Recommendations
The increasing use of digital platforms and increasing awareness of the travellers has created
the emerging need for the company to improve its mobile strategy. It must work with search
star to understand the purchase intent of the customers and must efficiently use the search

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optimisation to increase the sales of the company. It must increase its online presence and
must design campaigns to attract potential customers.
The company must focus on low-cost generic strategy to design the travel plans that target
the low-income group and increase the sales of the company. It must also design its packages
targeting all the age groups to diversify its business and experience increase in the profits.

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References
Aune, M.G., (2016) Passengers, Spies, Emissaries, and Merchants: Travel and Early Modern
English Identity. In Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture (pp. 141-156).
Routledge.
Intrepid Travel. (2019) About Us [Online]. Available from:
https://www.intrepidtravel.com/en/about/why-small-group-travel [Accessed 31/5/19]
Intrepid Travel. (2019) Annual report [Online]. Available from:
https://www.intrepidtravel.com/sites/intrepid/files/IG_Annual_Report_2017.pdf [Accessed
31/5/19]
Intrepid Travel. (2019) Six reasons to travel with Intrepid [Online]. Available from:
https://www.intrepidtravel.com/en/about/why-intrepid [Accessed 31/5/19]
Intrepid Travels.com. (2019) Intrepid Travel's Communication on Progress [Online].
Available from: https://www.intrepidtravel.com/sites/intrepid/files/teal/Our%20Approach
%20to%20Sustainability_COP_2010_FINAL.pdf [Accessed 31/5/19]
Kritz, F., (2017) Hit the Road: Traveling with a neurologic condition is not impossible. With
advance planning, lots of patience, and these 10 strategies, your next trip can be fun and
invigorating. Neurology Now, 13(2), pp.17-19.
Laequee, N. (2018) Intrepid Travel Launches Ethical And Socially Responsible Tours
[Online]. Available from: https://www.thetravel.com/intrepid-ethical-socially-responsible-
tours/ [Accessed 31/5/19]
Luo, V. (2019) Intrepid Travel Unveils New Creative Strategy Urging People To ‘Be Intrepid
[Online]. Available from: https://www.bandt.com.au/campaigns/intrepid-travel-unveils-new-
creative-strategy-urging-people-intrepid [Accessed 31/5/19]

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Marketing Dawn. (2017) Pestle Analysis of Travel Industry [Online]. Available from:
http://marketingdawn.com/pestle-analysis-of-travel-industry/ [Accessed 31/5/19]
Martinkenaite, I. and Breunig, K.J., (2016) The emergence of absorptive capacity through
micro–macro level interactions. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.700-708.
Sidhu, R. and Dall’Alba, G., (2017) A strategy of distinction’unfolds: unsettling the
undergraduate outbound mobility experience. British Journal of Sociology of
Education, 38(4), pp.468-484.
TTRA. (2017) how does politics affect tourism? [Online]. Available from:
https://ttra.com/how-does-politics-affect-tourism/ [Accessed 31/5/19]