Bloomberg examines Adventure Life's innovative business strategy

Adventure Life is featured on Bloomberg.com as an adventure travel company that has been successful thanks to business innovation.Rather than compete with travel booking sites such as Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, Adventure Life, based in Missoula, Montana, targets adventure-seekers. Bloomberg reporter Karen E. Klein writes:By focusing exclusively on tours in Latin America and cruises on small ships around the world, Adventure Life aims to provide experiences that delve into foreign cultures and help customers connect with local people. "What we're doing is different. You can't buy a specialized, guided trek on the Inca Trail on Orbitz. The big travel consolidators don't want to bother with the very specialized itineraries that we do," says Chief executive Brian Morgan, 37, who founded the business after spending a year working for a humanitarian group in Ecuador.Adventure Life keeps its pricing down by employing native guides, which eliminates travel expenses for U.S.-based guides. Local guides also have experience with Central and South American cultural festivals, sports activities and other points of significance, including Quilotoa Crater Lake in Ecuador and the village of Totonicapan in Guatemala.Online advertising has been another strong point for Adventure Life in booking adventure travel vacations. Klein writes about Morgan:For instance, he built an extensive website in 1999 when most travel agencies had simple sites where potential customers could order print brochures. "I was 25, living in the small market of Missoula, Montana, and I had no friends that could afford these trips. I knew I had to sell to strangers who would find me online," he recalls.Shannon Stowell, president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, tells reporter Klein:"Brian is a great example of the heart and soul of the AV [adventure] travel industry. He was one of the early innovators and has been an early adopter of innovative strategy. They always seem to be at the forefront of things."