Intrepid Travel’s Overtourism Antidote for Europe Focuses on Hyperlocal and Remote


Skift Take

It's a promising approach — partnering with an established, niche conservation group to offer trips focused on uncrowded Mediterranean villages and protected areas. And it might just work as more travelers seek "soulful" experiences away from Europe's tourist crowds.

During Skift Forum Europe, while the world remained in the throes of the pandemic, destinations described the travel pause as a perfect opportunity to confront overtourism’s negative impacts on their region and to find new destination management tactics. Since then, more tourism leaders and stakeholders around the world have been discussing solutions to "building back better" post pandemic and finding a way to shape tourism in a way that is more positively impactful for the environment and resident communities. Intrepid Travel, considered a leader in the sustainable tourism space with its low carbon footprint and locally-led small group tours, showed it was moving past platitudes by sharing concrete ways in which it was moving forward post-pandemic. Now it’s taken that effort one step further — by launching a new kind of conservation-focused tour that aims to be the antidote to those big crowds visiting the same places in southern Europe. It's partnering with the MEET Network