Not quite. World Expeditions is our founding brand, operating since 1975. World Expeditions Travel Group is the parent company formed in 2013 to bring that brand together with our other active travel brands under one shared vision. Same ownership and standards, different scope. If you are booking a trip, you deal with one of the brands.

The group is privately Australian owned and is not publicly listed. It was built around the original World Expeditions business, which began in 1975 as Australian Himalayan Expeditions running its first commercial trek in Nepal, and took the World Expeditions name in the late 1980s.

Sue Badyari has been Chief Executive Officer since 1999. The management team is long standing, and that continuity runs through to the brands and into the field, where many of our people have been with the group for decades.

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, London and Ottawa, with Sydney as the head office. Each office sells and supports the brands relevant to its market. Our in-country teams and operators are separate from these and sit in the destinations themselves.

To 1975 in Nepal, though the group itself was formed in 2013. Between those dates came Australian Walking Holidays and the Tasmanian Expeditions merger in the 1990s, UTracks in 2007, and the offices in Auckland, London and Ottawa. The full story is on our brand history page.

Seventeen. World Expeditions, World Expeditions Schools, Australian Walking Holidays, Tasmanian Expeditions, Blue Mountains Adventure Company, Australian Cycle Tours and Huma Charity Challenge in Australia. Adventure South NZ, Great Walks of New Zealand and Trail Journeys in New Zealand. UTracks, Walkers' Britain & Europe, Coast to Coast Packhorse and Sherpa Van in Europe. Great Canadian Trails, Great American Trails and Adventure Travel West in North America.

Both. We created UTracks in 2007, Huma Charity Challenge and World Expeditions Schools between 2013 and 2018, and Australian Cycle Tours in 2020. We acquired Adventure South NZ in 2011, Walkers' Britain in 2012, Sherpa Van in 2016, and later Blue Mountains Adventure Company and Adventure Travel West. Tasmanian Expeditions merged with us in the 1990s.

Yes. Walkers' Britain & Europe was formerly Sherpa Expeditions, so you may find either name depending on where you come across us. It is one brand, specialising in walking and cycling in Britain and Europe since 1973.

Because a walker booking a self-guided week in Europe and a trekker heading to Everest are not the same traveller, and one brand serving both serves neither well. Each brand keeps its own specialism, team and regional knowledge. The group provides the standards, systems and financial backing behind them.

Sometimes they overlap, and where they do the difference is usually style rather than destination: guided against self-guided, or a different pace. We would rather point you to the brand that fits than win the booking with the wrong one, including when that means sending you elsewhere in the group.

They are run as distinct brands with their own teams and product, under shared group standards for safety, risk, crew welfare and financial protection. Booking conditions, group sizes and inclusions differ by brand, so read the terms of the brand you are booking with rather than assuming they match another.

With the brand you book through, which is part of the group. That matters because a group entity stands behind your booking, accredited or licensed in the market you are buying in, rather than an overseas supplier you have paid directly.

In large part we operate them. Around 80% of trips are run by operations we own outright or that work exclusively for us, concentrated in the destinations where our brands are strongest. Elsewhere we work with specialist local operators, many of them decades-long relationships, engaged under our standards and with us accountable for the trip.

Safety and risk management, crew and porter welfare, financial protection and complaint handling are set at group level and apply to every brand. Product, pace and inclusions are set by each brand, because a cycling holiday and a Himalayan trek need different answers to the same question.

To a published Porter Welfare Policy, set region by region, on trips that use portered crew. Porters receive wages above local minimums, three meals a day, accommodation, cold-weather clothing and footwear, accident and medical insurance, and the same emergency evacuation access our travellers get. Load limits are enforced and vary by region.

It means small groups, local employment and a small footprint, applied as an operating standard rather than a marketing position. Our commitments across people and culture, nature and wildlife, and climate action are set out under Responsible Travel, along with our Ethical Marketing Policy.

Yes. Your booking creates jobs for local people and brings income to the communities our trips travel through. It also supports the World Expeditions Foundation, our registered not-for-profit arm: our brands donate the equivalent of AUD$5 per traveller and 100% reaches the projects, because the Foundation has no administration fees and is run by volunteer directors.

We publish them. Our Impact Reports set out what has been achieved and where we still fall short, and our Regenerative 2030 goal commits us to a regenerative project in every country we operate in.

Yes, in each market we sell in: ATIA accredited in Australia, a CATO accredited tour operator, TAANZ accredited in New Zealand, TICO registered in Canada, and ATOL licensed in the United Kingdom. Accreditation is what puts financial protection behind a booking rather than goodwill.

Raise it first with the brand you booked through, or the consultant who handled the booking. Our published Complaint Handling and Dispute Resolution Policy applies across the group: complaints are acknowledged within five business days and finalised within four business weeks. You can escalate to your consumer protection agency at any time.

Yes. Most of our brands work with the trade, and terms vary by brand and by market. Approach the brand you want to sell rather than the group, because booking systems, commercial terms and agent support all sit with the brands rather than centrally.

We have a media contact in each region, listed on our media page: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and North America. For anything about a specific trip, destination or traveller, that contact will bring in the brand's own team. We do not comment on other operators.

Through Careers, which is split into office jobs and guiding jobs because they are recruited differently. Office roles sit with a brand and an office. Guiding and field roles are recruited in the countries they operate in.

Approach the brand that runs the region rather than the group. Be aware that many of our operator relationships run for decades, and that we engage operators under our own safety, risk and crew welfare standards, with the brand remaining accountable for the trip.

It depends on how you want to travel more than on where you want to go: guided small group, self-guided with everything arranged, walking, cycling, rafting, family or school. Browse Our Brands, or tell any of our offices what you are after and they will point you to the one that fits.

The brand you booked with, and ideally the consultant who handled it, because they hold your booking and can act on it. The group office cannot see or change a brand booking directly, so going straight to the brand is faster.

On safety, crew welfare, financial protection and complaint handling, yes, and those are set at group level. On group size, inclusions and how much is arranged for you, no, and deliberately so. Check the trip page and booking conditions of the brand you are booking with.

You are booking with an accredited or licensed business in your own market: ATIA in Australia, TAANZ in New Zealand, TICO in Canada and ATOL in the United Kingdom. That is a protection you do not get paying an overseas supplier directly, and it applies whichever of our brands you book.