Our story


The travel industry is the wrong way round. That idea – all eight words of it – set us on our path to transform travel for the better.  

When you’re inside this industry you can see it clearly – all the layers that sit between travellers at one end, and local people in the destination at the other. All the inefficiencies, the bureaucracy, the half-baked tour ideas that don’t work. We wanted out of all that – the thinking was “let’s do something different and better, and have fun on the way”.

The future of travel

We had our first bookings more than ten years ago. Press attention came quickly – there was a hunger for new ideas. There was a similar hunger from all these amazing local tour operators around the world – with TravelLocal they could be themselves, use their own creativity and talk to their own customers. Suddenly they had a voice, and travellers liked what they had to say.

50,000 customers later, and we are going into our biggest ever period of growth. The next decade feels ripe for us – everyone is talking about sustainability, about contributing to local economies, about getting out into the world and seeing things differently, with a new spirit. 

Join us, and help build the future of travel.