Skift Take
Both partners seek growth when the home markets aren’t expanding as much as before. Intrepid needs Ctrip’s user base of 300 million while Ctrip needs Intrepid’s kind of journeys. But doubtful if sustainable travel will instantly be the norm in China. It's a start.
Intrepid Group is making its biggest push ever for a slice of China’s outbound market by partnering Trip.com Group to offer sustainable travel to Chinese travelers.
Just a few years ago trips that are purposeful, responsible, experiential — and other such sustainablespeak that defines Intrepid journeys — might be largely met with puzzlement in China. Now Intrepid Group aspires for the China outbound market to represent as much as 10 percent of its total business by 2025, its CEO James Thornton told Skift.
The Australian company's China presence to date is primarily inbound, although it has worked with a couple of small operators in China to tap the outbound market. Those will continue, but the Trip.com Group partnership is “the first with a huge, internationally recognized OTA (online travel agency) with whom we are building a new product style for Chinese travelers,” Thornton said.
“There’s a change in the way the Chinese travel. The middle class travelers are moving away from traditional shopping trips, golfing trips, or tours of iconic attractions. They want bespoke, ex
