The Travel Growth Podcast

Duncan Grossart is the founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Journeys With Purpose, the highest-scoring B Corp travel company in the world. 

He is a veteran entrepreneur, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a leading expert in global rewilding who transforms high-level conservation initiatives into deep-dive, immersive travel experiences.

Lydia Eva Mpanga is the co-founder and CEO of Nkuringo Safaris, a multi-award-winning, female-led travel group operating at the forefront of East African tourism.

She is the force behind the globally recognised Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge, the founder of the Gorilla Junction Foundation, and a trailblazer in community-led luxury travel and sustainable conservation safari experiences.

David Guthrie is the co-founder of A Tent with a View, a pioneer in conservation-led tourism, and a 30-year veteran of the East African safari industry.

He is the mastermind behind the innovative Bush Rover Suites, a leading advocate for integrating UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into hospitality, and a trailblazer who helped open up Tanzania’s ‘Secret South’ and Saadani National Park.

Peter Syme is a veteran of the adventure travel world whose career spans from the British Army to mentoring hundreds of tour operators globally. 

As a partner at Tourpreneur, he helps small travel businesses become more profitable and scale by navigating the intersection of tourism and technology.

Portia Hart is the founder of Blue Apple Beach, The Pink Mango and Townhouse in Cartagena, Colombia, with the goal of combining excellence, authenticity and sustainability throughout.

She is a pioneer of B-Corp standards in the Caribbean, a leading voice in regenerative hospitality, and the visionary behind the Green Apple Foundation.

She is also a passionate speaker on how to profitably put sustainability into practice and was named by Condé Nast Traveller as one of the people changing the future of travel.

Matthew Newton is the founder of Leatherback Travel an 8-figure global ‘house of brands’ in the multi-day tour operator space.

He is the former leader of Tourism Tiger, an advocate for modern company culture, and the mind behind hyper-niche travel companies like Patch Adventures, Magnificent Rail, and Fencox Travel.

Sonal Uberoi is the founder of Spa Balance and the author of The Wellness Asset.

She hosts the Wellness in Hospitality podcast and has become the go-to expert for brands that want to integrate wellness into their DNA rather than just adding it to the amenities list.

Simon King and Alastair Donnelly are the co-founders of Inside Travel Group, the specialist operator behind the renowned brands InsideJapan and InsideAsia.

They’ve recently celebrated 25 years in business and grown a business with people and purpose at its heart, whilst scaling and evolving from two friends in a university dorm to a global tour operator.

Juliet Kinsman is the founder of Bouteco, a consultancy that helps travel companies and hotels be more sustainable and tell better stories about what they do and why.

She’s also the host of Funny Old World, a podcast for the eco curious, and was the first-ever sustainability editor for Condé Nast Traveller after helping shape the voice for Mr & Mrs Smith in her earlier career. 

Riva Bacquet is the COO at SA Expeditions, a virtual travel company that specialises in curating bespoke travel experiences to the Americas and around the world.

She believes that travel should be a force for good, balancing profit with purpose. This led to SA Expeditions achieving B Corp status in 2020 amongst many other company initiatives.

John O’Ceallaigh is the founder of Lute, an agency that provides consultancy, branding and content-creation services to luxury-travel businesses.

He was previously the luxury travel editor at the Telegraph Media Group, overseeing all their luxury travel content.

He continues to write for some of the leading luxury travel publications internationally, including the Financial Times, The Times, Departures and Robb Report.

Peter Banks is the Managing Director at Rudding Park, a privately owned luxury hotel with destination spa in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

He’s grown the hotel to what it is today from the initial launch, managing big investments that have led to Rudding regularly winning awards such as ‘Hotel Spa of the Year’ from the AA and ‘Hotel of the Year’ from Visit England.

Becky Harris is one of the co-founders of Viaventure, a DMC in Central America where she worked between 2001 and 2016.

Since leaving she has set up a range of businesses, from SaaS products like Squirellfish to Travel Kinship, her consultancy for DMCs.

Nick Pulley founded Selective Asia in 2005, a tour operator that creates unique trips to Asia in a sustainable and meaningful way. 

Nick is the founder of One Bottle at a Time, an initiative aimed at reducing the amount of plastic used throughout Asia by working with local NGOs.

He was also behind the launch of the first ‘half moon’ parties in Koh Phan Ngan (which he insists are far better than the ‘full moon’ version!).

Tom Bodkin is the founder of Secret Compass, an organisation that pushes the boundaries of what is possible, taking people, brands and organisations to corners of the earth which many say isn’t feasible.

Tom was an Officer in the Parachute Regiment for 6 years, and commanded on operations in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2010, working alongside Afghan security forces. He’s also a qualified Jungle Warfare Instructor and has spent lots of time working in Africa and the rain forests of Brunei. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and loves ski-touring, snowboarding, mountain biking and kite-surfing, all the more when it is done in the world’s wildest places.

Zakia is the founder of Invisible Cities, a social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become tour guides in cities across the UK.

Zakia and her team have empowered countless homeless people to create unique tours of their home cities to give visitors an experience that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

She has spoken at TedX, is a guest lecturer and Invisible Cities was awarded the accolade of ‘Best Tour’ in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel list in 2021.

Nick is the founder of Impact Marathon, an organisation that uses the power of running to uplift communities and empower runners all over the world.

Since 2015 they have raised $1.2m for grassroots organisations where they tackle The Global Goals in those communities, and have organised races in 5 different countries and built a community of more than 400 runners.

Melvin is the founder of TravelDudes, a global community of experienced travelers who dig deep to find the best travel tips to share with the world.

Travel Dudes has amassed a Twitter following of more than 250,000 people and has similarly huge numbers on Facebook, Instagram and other social media channels.

Melvin is at the forefront of the conversation around influencer marketing in travel and partners with clients to create engaging content that reaches an audience of over three million travelers each month.

Ben Simpson is the co-founder of Easol, an e-commerce platform specially designed for selling experiences and made specifically for experience creators. 

Before this he grew and sold an events business, worked at an ad agency and ran adventure travel experiences before founding Easol, successfully taking it through the YCombinator accelerator programme in Silicon Valley and attracting further investment to help the business grow.

Sam Mcmanus is the founder of YellowWood Adventures, who offer small group adventures to exceptional destinations, from far flung places like Ethiopia and Mongolia to options closer to home like Spain and Romania.

Travel and books are the two passions that have fuelled journeys to over 60 countries whilst living on four continents and led him to starting the business, with roles in journalism and events helping him develop the skills needed to get things off the ground.

Matthijs Keij is the CEO of Withlocals, an international experiential company that connects people to local hosts who offer private, personalised tours from all over the world.

Before Withlocals he founded companies in online marketing and technology and led them to a successful exit, building extensive knowledge in how businesses work and developing his entrepreneurial talent.

Paul is the founder of A Luxury Travel Blog, the world’s first luxury travel blog and one of the most popular travel blogs in the world.

He has worked in the travel industry for 30 years, from delivering local tourism brochures to building websites for hotels, and lots in between.

He’s now a regular speaker at travel industry events and a significant influence on the travel world, harnessing his audience of over a million people on social media and hundreds of thousands of monthly website visitors.

Dave is an adventurer, speaker and community leader.

In 2006 he skateboarded across Australia which began his Expedition 1000 quest with the goal of completing 25 1,000 mile journeys on non-motorised transport. He’s also the founder of the YesTribe, a community of more than 10,000 people around the world. Amongst many other things he’s written 3 books and also hosts the Self Propelled podcast.

He is now working on his next big project, Big Sky Hideaway, a glamping and events space powered by renewables and community.

And that’s just scratching the surface…

Darren is the founder of Out of Office, a specialist LGBT travel company, and owner of Travelgay.com – the world’s biggest LGBT travel website.

After a 10 year career as a successful journalist, Darren switched paths to become a travel entrepreneur and has never looked back.

Gavin Bate is the founder of the adventure travel company Adventure Alternative, along with the international charity Moving Mountains which helps disadvantaged children in Nepal, Kenya and Tanzania.

Gavin is a fascinating man who has achieved incredible things through his life, and he shares some truly golden nuggets here which we could all take to enhance both our businesses and our lives.