kabarsula ‘You don’t get a seat at the table’: The VERY strict employee rule driving Leatherback Travel’s rapid growth bandar SLOT INDONESIA

Leatherback Travel has enjoyed a meteoric rise, ranking fifth on the 2025 AFR Fast 100 list and earning the title of Australia’s fastest-growing travel company.

Co-founded in Melbourne in 2019 by Matthew Newton and Rebeca Suarez, Leatherback has since expanded to 12 niche travel brands, each catering to travellers the pair believe have been overlooked by the wider industry.

From adventurous women seeking more than wellness retreats to solo travellers fed up with paying a premium to travel alone, the company has built its business around underserved markets and a desire for more authentic cultural connections.

It has also grown from hiring its first employee in July 2022 to a workforce of 62.

But behind that rapid expansion is an unusual rule: new employees aren’t allowed to start their normal work until they’ve memorised the company’s operating principles.

It’s a requirement that Newton says has been a game changer for the business.

Their first two days are spent learning the company’s principles and values alongside an onboarding buddy. Until they’ve committed them to memory, they don’t get access to their usual work systems.

“You don’t get to take your seat at the table unless you show that this matters to you as much as you say it matters,” Newton told Travel Weekly.

The idea is simple. Rather than letting company values gather dust on a wall, Leatherback wants every employee to know them by heart.

“One of the things that defines a culture is shared language,” Newton explained.

“Now every single person, the whole company knows that every single person knows the terminology, knows the language, knows how to communicate, and that was a real unblock for the company.”

The approach comes as new research highlights a growing disconnect between the travel industry’s stated values and how they operate in practice.

Research by Expedia Australia and New Zealand country director Philippa Durant found that while travel companies have no shortage of good intentions, many struggle to embed purpose into their day-to-day operations and commercial performance.

Travel industry full of good intentions but fails to deliver on purpose, research finds

“Travel has more intent than rigour. Intent gets you the values statement. Rigour gets you the revenue,” Durant said.

At Leatherback, that rigour extends well beyond the onboarding process.

Two hours a week when nobody works

Every week, the entire company stops its usual work for two hours. No emails, no phone calls and no customer bookings. Instead, employees must use the time to improve something within the business.

That might mean automating a process, fixing a recurring customer issue or eliminating unnecessary steps from a booking procedure.

The philosophy dates back to Leatherback’s early days, when Newton addressed a team of around 10 employees.

“What we want to do is we want to grow quickly and maintain quality,” he recalled telling them.

“And then, as soon as I said it, I actually kind of like vomited a little bit in my mouth.”

He realised maintaining quality wasn’t ambitious enough.

“We want to grow quickly and we want to increase quality, and we don’t want to grow unless we can increase quality at the same time.”

Many businesses struggle to turn their stated values into everyday behaviour

Every employee is also required to listen to at least one live phone call with a guest each week, keeping the workforce connected to the people they’re serving.

The approach appears to be paying off. Leatherback recently recorded an employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) of 87, a result Newton says reflects the strength of the company’s culture.

He believes too many businesses struggle to turn their stated values into everyday behaviour.

“You can put all your values on your wall all you want, but if it’s not part of an actual physical rhythm at the company, it’s not a true value.”

For Leatherback, the philosophy extends beyond employee morale to the guest experience.

“The only way you’re ever gonna have the best guest experience is if you have the best team member experience,” he said.

And that, he insists, means more than offering staff the occasional perk.

“It’s not just giving people free pizza on a Fridays.”

Instead, it means investing in the tools, processes and policies that allow employees to do their jobs well.

Solo travel drives growth

The company is also seeing growing demand for its small-group adventures, particularly among solo travellers.

Solo bookings are up 49 per cent year-on-year and account for 63.4 per cent of all bookings so far this year, with women making up the overwhelming majority.

“Often people think it’s about safety, but it’s actually much more likely to be about seeking out their tribe,” Newton said.

He explained that solo travellers on traditional group tours can sometimes feel like outsiders among couples.

“They feel invisible, or there are a bunch of couples and they’re just treated like almost like an annoying extra.”

Leatherback has also expanded its portfolio of niche travel brands, including a recently launched birdwatching brand for women and a chess-focused retreat.

“There are just many many travelers who are ignored by mainstream travel companies because they’re just not big enough of a market,” Newton said.

“The primary reason is just because we have creativity that’s impossible to bottle.”

Uzbekistan is currently the company’s most popular destination, both for bookings and guest satisfaction, while Central Asia more broadly, Mongolia and the Balkans are also performing strongly.

The company is also launching a special Egypt tour for the July 2027 total solar eclipse, having secured exclusive use of two boats on the Nile and enlisted astrophysicist and science communicator Kirsten Banks as a guest expert.

Newton said demand for eclipse tourism is already creating significant logistical challenges, with hotels and boats along the Nile heavily booked.

But for all the talk of growth, processes and performance, the company’s philosophy remains refreshingly straightforward.

“We’re here to have like cool times with fun people, right? That’s what we say.”