It’s often said that the best ideas are the simple ones. The wheel, the hula hoop, the bendy straw, the slinky…you see where I’m going with this.
Back in 2000, university chums Alastair Donnelly and Simon King decided to start a travel company offering culturally immersive trips around Japan. They formed InsideJapan Tours and ran the business from a spare bedroom.
Simon King and Alastair Donnelly (right)
Fast forward 25 years and the Inside Travel Group (ITG) is now a global business, spanning four continents, employing 250 people and attracting big investors.
“I think we’ve always been ahead of the curve,” Alastair tells me during a flying visit Down Under. “Through luck and intuition, we had a really good idea.”
That idea was born out of a backpacking trip through Russia.
“It was chaotic and it was poorly organised. Our driver often ran out of petrol because he kept looking for the best price.
“But it was also incredible fun and it wasn’t just like going around the Kremlin and all the big sites. It was experiencing Russian life and we thought we could do the same in Japan.”
Having already spent three years teaching English in Japan, both Alastair and Simon knew something of the local culture and customs.
“We felt there was so much opportunity for this kind of cultural exploration and immersing people in the crazy weirdness of Japan that is so different to anywhere else in the world.
“At the start what we offered was low, low budget tours in two-star accommodation. It was dirt cheap. Me and Simon would take it in turns to go out and lead the trips. We didn’t really know what we were doing but it worked.”
Perhaps surprisingly these English entrepreneurs faced little or no opposition from either the existing Japanese tour operators or the locals.
“We had no negativity towards the business. People loved it because what we were doing was showing visitors everyday life. We told our guests that we’d take everything that we would do in a year for fun and we’ll do it all in two weeks…and we’ll hang a bit of sightseeing around the edges.
“We never crossed swords with anyone from the local travel industry and the hotels were really welcoming because nobody was booking those type of properties.”
So successful did their touring model become that in 2013 the pair launched InsideAsia, specialising in cultural adventures across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore and Hong Kong. This part of the business is expected reach new heights and take a record number of passengers on cultural adventure style trips across Asia.
“We really understand what we’re all about now and the concept of cultural adventure, and we’re starting to communicate that in a way that resonates with people.”
Australians have enthusiastically embraced their style of touring and this led ITG to open an office in Brisbane in 2016.
“Aussies are about the world’s best travellers. When you look at the amount of travel that they do outside of Australia, it’s extraordinary really. They have a real hunger for it and they are enthusiastic and open minded about it.
“But if you want to service an Australian customer, you better be here, right?”
Not only do they maintain an office here but ITG also see travel agents as a vital part of the company’s future.
“Our go-to marketing strategy here in Australia is always build with the trade because the trade is so important here. They know their customers and they can really communicate what we offer to a much wider audience.
“Trade is a critically important part of our business here and that’s why we’ve invested in setting up an office here with BDM’s and getting them out on the road. We hope to do more of that moving forward.”
Like most travel companies who offer cultural immersion, responsible tourism is key to what they do and how they do it. “It’s not just where we travel, it’s how we travel” is their mantra.
Yet Alastair doesn’t believe the majority of people are basing their travel solely on sustainability criteria…not yet anyway.
“It’s not first and foremost in the majority of customer’s minds. They don’t want to engage really deeply with it but they do want to get that reassurance that your sustainability is up to scratch.
“I actually believe that there’s no such thing as truly sustainable travel. Travel is inherently an unsustainable activity when you consider the inevitable emissions and I don’t think we can pretend otherwise.
“How we frame it, and we’ve always taken this approach, is to look at it as having a positive impact within the destinations we visit.
“We have seen that, done right, travel can create meaningful local employment and add economic value, while also protecting valuable cultural and natural heritage.
“So, you’ve got to provide a win for your customers, your staff, your suppliers, your destinations, the local communities where your offices are based, your shareholders and in our case now, you’ve got to be a win for your investors.
“We’re also developing a lot more of our community-based tourism. We think that the benefits of travel should remain with the communities you’re involved in, not sucked out of the country.”
As our time draws to a close, I have one final question to ask. Some 25 years later, are they both still excited about the company and what it delivers?
“Absolutely, we both still get a buzz out of it. I believe that travel is inherently a beautiful and important thing that brings people together and makes them happy.
“That’s got to be good thing for the world because it can be a chaotic and awful place, so let’s make a bit of happiness.
“We’ve got this amazing product that makes people happy. We just want to see how big we can make it?”
Images courtesy Inside Travel Group
