19 Apr 2017
- Award winning travel startup, rated 'Best for Experiences' in the UK, launches new adventure weekends in Australia and New Zealand.
- Designed for time-poor, experience-hungry professionals to escape the city, require little to no time off work.
Multi-award winning travel startup Much Better Adventures has arrived in Australia, launching a new collection of adventures, designed to help time-poor, experience-hungry professionals to escape the cities of Sydney and Melbourne for the weekend.
The new batch of experiences offer city escapees mini-adventures in the likes of Tasmania, the Whitsundays Islands, the Blue Mountains, and New Zealand's Fiordlands and Abel Tasman, with Asian and Pacific destinations coming soon. All trips are led by local guides and experts to ensure you make the most of your time, and take care of all the logistics - they typically include guiding, accommodation, local transport and necessary equipment in one easy online booking.
Before expanding the series to this region, Much Better Adventures first launched their series of mini breaks in Europe, winning the 'Best for Experiences' award at the annual Travolution Awards, and picking up rave reviews from customers.
The weekends are optimised for urban-dwellers to use the least amount of their annual leave for the maximum experience, aim to be accessible in both price and level of difficulty, and are designed for solo travellers to join small social groups of like minded people on set dates, or private groups to book them privately on dates of their choice.
On the launch of the new series, CEO Alex Narracott says, “We were overwhelmed by the response to the weekends in Europe and confident that the Australian market will love the series too.”
Narracott added, “Trends strongly indicate that the Australians, particularly around Sydney and Melbourne, are increasingly looking for short-haul instead of long-haul trips with a 30% increase in short-haul trips to New Zealand over the last decade alone. Our own research found that 4 out of 5 people intended to escape the city over weekends at least twice in the next year, with many saying more than 10 times. We're excited to be expanding our series of adventures here and help Australians make more of their limited time off.”
Zoe Tehrani, a customer who has now joined 8 of the trips in Europe, said of the series, “These weekend trips have been my escape. It has provided a really great way to get outdoors, and do crazy, adventurous things. It has definitely made my life more fulfilled and I'm certainly happier as a result.”
Another, Clare Bennett, who went kayaking in Norway with the company in 2016 commented, “The whole concept of having everything arranged for you is what makes these trips so great and shows just how much you can fit into a weekend!”.
To see all the new experiences in the series, visit muchbetteradventures.com
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Anyone with an appetite for a proper weekend escape can choose from a wide range of experiences, including:
Packraft New Zealand's South Island
- Get off the beaten track with a weekend of paddling and hiking in the famous Fiordlands in a weekend.
- 2 days off work.
- Price from A$830pp excl. flights
- Explore subterranean marvels with a weekend of caving in Mole Creek Karst National Park.
- ½ day off work.
- Price from A$810pp excl. flights
Hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing
- Follow one of the world's most famous trails through a World Heritage landscape of volcanoes and colourful lakes.
- 1 day off work.
- Price from A$750pp excl.flights
Kayak and Camp Abel Tasman National Park
- Sea kayak through turquoise coves and camp on remote golden beaches in New Zealand's most colorful coastal park.
- 1 day off work.
- Price from A$555 excl. flights
Hike the Tasman Coast and Swim with Seals
- Hike along the spectacular cliffs of Tasman National Park and get face-to-face with wild seals.
- ½ day off work.
- Price from A$810 excl. flights.
About Much Better Adventures:
Much Better Adventures is a multi-award winning platform designed to make it easy to book unique adventures and experiences with handpicked local hosts and guides.
Launched in 2013 by co-founders Alex Narracott, Sam Bruce and Guy Bowden, the startup has raised over A$1m from Seedcamp and the London Co-Investment Fund alongside some of Europe's leading tech and travel investors and entrepreneurs, including Simon Lambert (ex-Lastminute.com, Treatwell – formerly Wahanda), Fred Ahlberg (ex-Ebay and King), Brett Akker (founder of Lovespace, Streetcar, ex-Zipcar) and James Kent (ex-Google). It has also received grant funding from the Queensland Government.
Rated 5* on TrustPilot, the company has seen over 95,000 nights booked on the platform. In November 2016, the company won the award for Best Travel Experiences at the Travolution Awards UK.
The company hand-picks local travel hosts with the aim of making small businesses and local destinations the real beneficiaries of tourism. The platform seeks to provide the inspiration and logistical simplicity needed to encourage more people to regularly enjoy an escape to nature. They believe that is the key to unlocking further growth in the active travel market, which has seen global growth of over 65 per cent a year, with 78 per cent of travellers 'wanting to try new experiences and activities' and 86 per cent 'wanting to book directly with locals'.
Much Better Adventures is a privately held company based in London and Brisbane with a remote team in France, Canada and Eastern Europe.
Media pack:
https://www.dropbox.com/work/Gentianes/Much%20Better%20Adventures%20Press%20Pack/Australia%20PR
PR Contact:
Alex Narracott
CEO, Much Better Adventures
+44 (0)7598212734
+44 (0)2003331176
Brisbane: River City Labs, 282 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4000. (+61 (0)7 3106 8680)
London: Runway East, Lower Ground, 10 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1AF (+44 (0)20 0333 1176)
References:
- Clare Bennet's review of her Norway weekend experience, 2016.
- “65% growth in the market”: Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) Market Study, 2013
- “78% trying new experiences”: Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) Market Study, 2013
- “86% want to book with locals”: Skift Trend Reports, 'The Rise of the Experiential Traveller', 2014
- “30% increase in short-haul travel to New Zealand”: 'ABS Gov report', August 2016
- “4/5 in Sydney and Melbourne aim to escape the city at least twice in the next year”: Much Better Adventures survey conducted with over 1,000 participants, Feb, 2017.
