Skift Take
You created the demand, so you own the emissions. That's Darrell Wade's case for counting the customer flights most operators leave off their carbon books, and the competitive cost it carries. We'll test whether the industry can afford to follow at Skift Global Forum this September.
Intrepid has spent decades building its name on responsible travel, and its co-founder and chairman, Darrell Wade, who speaks at Skift Global Forum, September 22–24, 2026, spent this year redrawing the line on what a tour operator counts as its own carbon. Ahead of his session, Darrell lays out the thinking behind that change and the long-term logic underneath it.
The Playbook He Rewrote
Skift: What’s one strategy or playbook you’ve had to actually rewrite this year, and what forced the change?
Darrell: Our climate playbook. That was rehauled and relaunched in January this year.
For years, like a lot of companies, we focused on carbon offsets and technical carbon targets, which for tour operators don’t typically include the flights that customers take to and from their trip.
That wasn’t ‘wrong’, but it ignored the elephant in the room, which is that flights are the largest emitter in our overall product, regardless of who books those flights themselves, we’re ultimately responsible for creating that demand.
We really challenged ourselves to think differently about this and to get real about what is required. We’ve moved to a total product lifecycle target, which accounts for those flights, and we’re investing in decarbonisation projects around the world.
The old approach wasn’t wrong. We just wanted to be much more ambitious and really move the needle.
Skift: The pace of change is only increasing. When you’re trying to make a decision, what’s the actual test or rule you use?
Darrell: I ask one question: will we be proud of this decision in ten years?
We have long-term decision making, which is the beauty of being a privately owned business. We don’t have to report on the next quarter, so we can think in longer cycles.
We also take a multiple stakeholder approach, which means we aren’t only focused on our shareholders – we think about all our other stakeholders, including our partners, communities, and the environment.
Having this long-term thinking and balanced approach really helps! Although it’s also not necessarily easy because you’re always having to balance one thing off against another.
I like to think we get it right most of the time.
Trust as the Asset
Skift: How are you thinking about how the traveler/customer relationship has evolved, and what companies need to do to maintain it?
Darrell: Thirty years ago, if you delivered a good trip in an interesting destination at a good price, that was generally enough. Today, customers want to know what kind of company they’re supporting.
How do you treat your team? What do you stand for? How do you respond to difficult issues? Are you contributing positively to the places you operate?
That doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. But you do need to be transparent and authentic. Trust is now one of the most valuable assets a company can build, and one of the easiest to lose. Intrepid has been building this for years and it’s not something that we take for granted.
Skift: What is one area that the travel industry doesn’t discuss or pay attention to enough?
Darrell: I’m not sure we really think enough about how our businesses can be vehicles for wealth creation and poverty alleviation. Tourism has lifted millions of people out of poverty globally by providing jobs and supply chains for small businesses. Just last week I was reminded of this by our team and community members in Africa.
As an industry we have a huge opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives and futures. I was fortunate to have a supportive family and a great education, which set me up for a job and success. Too many people don’t have access to these fundamental things, and we can help to ensure they do.
I think about this in three main ways: through earning opportunities for tour leaders; through growth opportunities for our suppliers; and through our employee shareholder programs that allows Intrepid’s team to share in our success. We have about 1000 employee shareholders in Intrepid now and I really want to see all of them benefiting in the future, and paying that forward in their families and communities around the world.
Where This Conversation Lands
- Carbon boundary: Intrepid now owns the customer flights as its own emissions, and the decarbonisation cost that follows. Is that the honest standard the industry should adopt, or a disadvantage against operators who draw the line narrower and spend less?
- Cost of honesty: a fuller carbon number could be a competitive liability in a price-sensitive market. Or it could be the accounting every operator gets held to once travelers and regulators catch up.
- Time horizon: ten-year, proud-of-it-in-a-decade decision-making is either an edge any operator can build toward, or one that public-market reporting cycles make genuinely hard to hold.
- Trust as asset: are transparency and stated values now a real purchase driver for travelers? Or a preference that softens the moment price competition sharpens?
- Stakeholder model: balancing partners, communities, and the environment against shareholders can sharpen long-term decisions or slow them down. We’ll press Darrell on where that trade-off has cost him.
Hear from Darrell Wade alongside Accor’s Sébastien Bazin, Expedia Group’s Ariane Gorin, and Revolution’s Steve Case, live at Skift Global Forum, September 22–24 in New York.