Active travel operator with 50+ destinations across biking, hiking, and river cruises
Backroads runs a 500+ person travel operations business spanning adventure trips, small-ship cruises, and family itineraries across 50+ countries. Their tech stack is heavily weighted toward marketing automation (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Google Analytics 4, Adobe Experience Manager, Shopify/Magento) and business intelligence (Power BI, Looker, Tableau), with emerging investment in AI-driven content and hypothesis testing—suggesting a shift from traditional marketing operations toward data-driven personalization and SEO optimization. Current hiring is concentrated in operations and marketing, signaling an effort to scale digital customer engagement and address documented data integrity and content discoverability challenges.
Notable leadership hires: Director
Backroads operates active travel experiences including multi-day biking and hiking trips, river and ocean cruises, and family-focused itineraries across more than 50 countries. Founded on four decades of operational expertise, the company markets directly to adventure travelers seeking immersive, higher-touch experiences. Operations span trip coordination, guest communications, hotel partnerships, and seasonal demand management across US, France, and Netherlands hiring footprints. The business model combines direct sales (call center, web), marketing-led customer acquisition, and post-purchase engagement through loyalty programs and repeat-customer re-activation efforts.
Backroads uses Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Shopify/Magento for commerce, Google Analytics 4, Power BI/Looker/Tableau for reporting, Adobe Experience Manager for content, Workday for HR, and GPT/BigQuery ML for emerging AI-driven analysis and content generation.
Active projects include automated content governance workflows, SEO and AI optimization strategy, guest re-engagement campaigns (Backroads Extra Special Travelers club), weekly communications, and FAQ/blog optimization to improve content discoverability and reduce data integrity issues.
Other companies in the same industry, closest in size