G Adventures’ former head honcho joins Intrepid

G Adventures’ former head honcho joins Intrepid
By admin


The former head of G Adventures’ Australia and New Zealand operations, Pete Rawley, has taken up a role with rival firm Intrepid, in the latest phase of its management restructure.

Rawley has been appointed to the newly created position of global industry sales manager across Intrepid Travel, Peregrine, Gecko's and Adventure Tours Australia. The adventure travel brands will merge management teams on October 1 under the leadership of Intrepid managing director James Thornton.

“Pete's taking on an overarching global role,” Thornton told Travel Today. “His main attraction was that he spent 10 years at Peregrine so he knows the business intimately.”

The next year will see the group “take the product globally” with Rawley undertaking the challenge of building its brands overseas. While Intrepid is well known in overseas markets such as the US, UK and Canada, the other brands are not, with previous attempts to introduce the Peregrine and Gecko's brands unsuccessful.

But Thornton is confident that with the brands all working as one business, the latest push will bear more fruit.

“Intrepid’s business is 50% outside Australia – the same can be true of Peregrine and Gecko’s,” Thornton said.

Meanwhile, Rawley welcomed the challenge of driving the brands overseas, describing the new position as a “homecoming”.

“It was the right time to look at new opportunities,” he said of his decision to leave G Adventures after five years in the role. “When this opportunity came up, it hit all the sweet spots and matched my expertise.”

The growth of the brands internationally is expected to contribute to "another record year", according to Thornton who anticipates double digit growth this year.

The October alignment of the management team, which will see the creation of dedicated sales teams for each individual brand, is also expected to drive sales through the trade, which account for more than 70% of overall business.

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