Intrepid Travel's Overtourism Antidote for Europe Focuses on Hyperlocal and Remote

During Skift Forum Europe, while the world remained in the throes of the pandemic, destinations described the travel pause as a perfect opportunity to confront overtourism’s negative impacts on their region and to find new destination management tactics. Since then, more tourism leaders and stakeholders around the world have been discussing solutions to "building back better" post pandemic and finding a way to shape tourism in a way that is more positively impactful for the environment and resident communities. Intrepid Travel, considered a leader in the sustainable tourism space with its low carbon footprint and locally-led small group tours, showed it was moving past platitudes by sharing concrete ways in which it was moving forward post-pandemic. Now it’s taken that effort one step further — by launching a new kind of conservation-focused tour that aims to be the antidote to those big crowds visiting the same places in southern Europe. It's partnering with the MEET Network to do that, an association of protected areas in the Mediterranean that creates sustainable tourism products with the goal of benefitting conservation and communities. The first two Intrepid tours in collaboration with the Meet Network launch in August and invite travelers to either “discover lesser-known treasures on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast” in Sibenik and the Kornati Islands or to visit “the lesser known corners of Crete untouched by tourism.” Each itinerary is centered around a major protected area — Kornati Islands National Park in Croatia or Samaria Gorge National Park in Crete — and from there, surrounding nature and cultural exper