Inside Look at Intrepid Travel’s Influencer Marketing Strategy

As the world’s largest certified B Corp travel company, Intrepid Travel has long been a pioneer in ethical, community-centered tourism. Yet despite its global presence, the brand faced limited visibility in North America – especially in the Pacific Northwest, where the appetite for conscious travel is high. That’s where Yulu came in. As a values-driven influencer marketing agency, Yulu was uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between Intrepid’s purpose-led mission and a North American audience hungry for more than just vacations – they sought meaning, connection, and responsible travel.

This case study showcases how a full-service influencer campaign not only elevated brand awareness, but helped position Intrepid as the go-to sustainable travel option for conscious North American explorers.

Challenge

Despite being a global leader in sustainable group travel, Intrepid Travel faced three critical challenges in the North American market:

Low brand recognition, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where the appetite for conscious tourism is high.
Lack of audience education around what sustainable, community-centered tourism looks like in action.
Short vacation timeframes in North America, making it difficult to showcase immersive travel within a limited PTO window

Strategy

A Comprehensive Influencer Marketing Campaign

Yulu developed and led the execution of #VacationDoneRight, a values-aligned campaign that demonstrated how Intrepid enables travellers to recharge meaningfully through ethical, immersive travel experiences.

Our full-service influencer marketing approach included:

Influencer identification, vetting, and briefing to ensure alignment with Intrepid’s brand values and messaging
Developing a travel influencer campaign focused on ethical travel and wellness storytelling
Crafting a campaign narrative to support consistent, purpose-driven content across multiple channels
Curating and managing a cohort of aligned content creators, representing diverse backgrounds and storytelling styles
Managing influencer contracts, deliverables, and campaign logistics for seamless execution and creator satisfaction
Offering real-time content feedback to ensure brand alignment and optimize engagement during live campaign periods
Tracking performance using custom KPIs, analytics dashboards, and influencer reporting tools
Post-campaign analytics and KPI reporting, including long-tail content insights and recommendations

Content Creator Engagement

Six diverse travel and lifestyle influencers were selected based on values alignment with Intrepid’s brand ethos, resulting in a global showcase of trips to Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Peru, Japan, and Botswana. Each content creator highlighted:

Community connection
Local culture and economic empowerment
Non-extractive tourism
Intrepid’s ease-of-travel for solo and group explorers

Content creators described the trips as transformative, highlighting the meaningful local experiences and Intrepid’s commitment to responsible travel. Many of the influencers went beyond their contracted deliverables through unpaid content, organic shares, and long-form reflections that deepened audience engagement and extended the campaign’s impact.

Influencer Marketing Strategy Through an Impact Lens

As a certified B Corp and impact communications agency, Yulu ensured the strategy went beyond aesthetics. We guided campaign messaging to align with sustainability, decolonized travel, and local storytelling, emphasizing:

Ethical group travel as an antidote to extractive tourism
Deep cultural immersion vs. surface-level experiences
Time-off as a form of wellness and global citizenship

Measurable Brand KPIs (with more analytics to come)

324,000+ total impressions across all platforms
420,000+ video views from creator content
10,000+ direct engagements (likes, comments, shares)

Note: These performance metrics reflect the data available at time of reporting. Some additional insights – such as referral traffic and total site impact – were hosted on Intrepid’s proprietary influencer dashboard, which presented tracking limitations and data access delays. As a result, the full picture of campaign performance, particularly in terms of confirmed bookings and PNW-driven web traffic, is likely underrepresented here.

Additional Outcomes

Confirmed trip bookings attributed to influencer referral traffic
Boosted web traffic from the Pacific Northwest
Elevated social engagement on Intrepid’s owned content

Long-Term Outcomes

Earned media secured in Forbes, which spotlighted the campaign’s themes of non-extractive, ethical tourism
100% of content creators expressed interest in ongoing partnership opportunities
Solidified Intrepid’s positioning as the go-to sustainable travel company for North Americans through values-aligned creator partnerships, organic reach, and high-impact storytelling.
Lasting creator relationships, potential for future integrations

Learnings & Future Opportunities

This case study proved that:

Personal storytelling and impact narratives drive engagement
Creator collaboration is most effective when values are shared
Clear pre-briefing, usage guidelines, and campaign tools streamline execution

For future sustainable travel clients – especially eco-resorts, hotels, or tour operators – this campaign stands as a replicable blueprint for:

Full-funnel influencer marketing
Impact-first content strategy
Authentic brand storytelling that converts.

Let’s Work Together

Looking to bring your eco-hotel, travel platform, or purpose-led tourism business into the spotlight through an influencer marketing and content creator engagement strategy? Call or email us to set up a call at hello@yulupr.com or +1 604-558-1656.