TUI, Intrepid Travel dissolve PEAK partnership

TUI Group and the founders of Intrepid Travel have agreed to end their PEAK Adventure Travel Group strategic venture.

According to a statement, the mutual decision to end the four-year partnership will allow each business to best serve their respective adventure market segments.

Under the new arrangement, Intrepid Travel co-founders Darrell Wade and Geoff Manchester will take back full ownership of the adventure travel brand they founded in 1989, as well as a portfolio of brands that will make up the Intrepid Group. Those brands include Adventure Tours Australia, Intrepid Travel, Geckos Adventures, Peregrine Adventures, The Family Adventure Company and Urban Adventures, as well as the company’s group of destination management companies operating under the PEAK DMC brand.

Darrell Wade will continue as CEO alongside James Thornton, the first managing director of the Intrepid Group.

A newly-created Adventure Specialist Division sitting within TUI’s Specialist Group will bring together brands including Exodus, Headwater, TrekAmerica, Grand American Adventures and Sawadee (which previously operated under the PEAK umbrella) with Quark Expeditions, Zegrahm Expeditions and International Expeditions (which previously operated within the Specialist Group’s North American Specialist Division).

In addition, this division will also include UK-based World Challenge and AmeriCan Adventures, a US-based destination management company.