Asia travel choice for jobless

Asia travel choice for jobless

• Asia ranks as favourite destination to escape to after being laid off
• Sales of redundancy promotion grow as economic downturn continues
• Average length of redundancy travel 18 days

13 March 2009: Asia is the destination of choice for people wishing to take some time out and assess their choices following being laid off. Sales of Intrepid Travel's Laid Off, Take Off promotion favour trips to Asia with 56.57 per cent of passengers booked on the promotion, followed by Africa with 27.5 per cent, Latin America with 13.5 per cent and North America with 2.75 per cent.

Sales of the promotion tripled from December to January and February saw the number of trips booked increase by 25 per cent. March is set to eclipse previous months, with sales equalling the January total a week into the month.

Intrepid Travel introduced the promotion in late November in response to customer enquiries about using their redundancy pay-out to travel. The discount is open to anyone who can provide evidence (in the form of an email or letter from their previous employer) that they have recently been made redundant. The discount applies to all Intrepid Travel small group adventures to over 100 countries around the world.

"While we are happy that it has given some people the chance to get away from it all, the success of this promotion is bitter sweet for us, It certainly indicates that job losses are impacting more and more people," said General Manager Intrepid NZ, Alison Mead

"We've been travelling to the region for 20 years and our trips are jam packed with the kind of experiences that will take people away from the every day and give them time to reassess and work out their next move. Our Thailand trips start from NZ$45 a day and we are told that many people can't live at home for that."

"We realise many people who have been laid off will not be able to travel, as they have responsibilities such as mortgages and families. This offer is aimed those who don't have such financial responsibilities and who believe that redundancy is an opportunity for them."

For details about this offer visit www.intrepidtravel.com/laidofftakeoff

ENDS

About Intrepid Travel
With 20 years of experience, Intrepid Travel is one of the world’s leading small group adventure tour operators. Intrepid takes around 80,000 travellers to over 90 countries worldwide, each and every year. Intrepid trips are designed to go off the beaten track, meet the locals and travel in an unconventional way, joining locals on their transport, in their markets and even in their homes. Intrepid employs close to a thousand employees in nearly 20 countries worldwide.

© Scoop Media