Active Adventures marks 30 years in business as more travelers look beyond traditional vacations and embrace the kind of active travel it was founded to offer.

Once considered a niche style of travel, active travel is part of a broader shift toward experience-led holidays as travelers look for trips built around time outdoors, personal achievement, and deeper connection with a destination.

The active, experience-seeking travel market is continuing to grow, with the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) placing total annual outbound spend at $1.6 Trillion USD.

Founded in Queenstown in 1996, Active Adventures is New Zealand’s original active adventure travel company, known for expertly guided, small group trips that combine outdoor challenges, local insight, and thoughtful customer care. Built on a love of the outdoors and a distinctly “Kiwi” spirit of adventure, the company has spent three decades helping travelers experience the world’s most remarkable places on foot, by bike, and from the water.

Today, Active Adventures operates across five continents while remaining proudly New Zealand-owned and headquartered in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world.

“We continue to see travelers looking for more than just time away,” said Tracey Goodall, Chief Executive Officer of Active Adventures. “Our guests want to explore the landscapes, not just look at them. They want to get out on the trail, connect with like-minded people, experience a destination more deeply, and return home knowing they’ve had the adventure of a lifetime.”

What began as a vision to help visitors experience New Zealand beyond the tourist trail has grown into a global adventure travel company. While its Kiwi roots continue to shape every trip, and New Zealand is still one of its most popular destinations, Active Adventures now guides travelers through some of the world’s most iconic landscapes, including Patagonia, the Dolomites, the Himalayas, Iceland, Peru, and the Galápagos Islands.

Active Adventures guests hike alpine passes, bike quiet back roads, paddle spectacular coastlines, and follow trails with guides who know their homeland deeply. The experience is active, adventurous and rewarding, while fully supported by quality guides with thoughtful pacing, logistics, accommodation, and hospitality designed around guests who want to explore landscapes without being left to figure it out alone.

“A great local guide changes the entire experience,” Goodall says. “They know when to challenge people, when to encourage them, where the special moments are and how to make guests feel completely looked after along the way”.

“It’s not about checking off more sights. It’s about getting outdoors to understand the true heart of a place, while having a sense of achievement as you experience it under your own steam.”

Active Adventures trips offer a range of activity levels allowing travelers to choose a trip with the pace and intensity that suits them best.

“At Active Adventures we provide the comfort, care and expert support, so guests can focus on the joy of experiencing a destination actively”.

Thirty years on, Active Adventures believes the future of travel will continue to be shaped by active experiences, expert local knowledge, and stronger human connections, because the most memorable journeys are rarely the ones experienced from a bus window.

About Active Adventures

Founded in Queenstown, New Zealand, in 1996, Active Adventures is an award-winning adventure travel company specializing in small-group guided hiking, biking, and multiactivity trips across the world. Its locally guided trips combine active exploration, thoughtful hospitality, expert support and meaningful connections with the landscapes and communities’ guests visit.

Media gallery

About The Author
Business Wire