Nomads was born under a bridge!

Australian hitchiker Richard McLeod had one of those nights when he turned up to a backpacker hostel in Koblenz, Germany one cold evening... Richard's diary reads:

"I am now in Koblenz... city of 110,000 at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. Both Tony and I hitched from Holland to Dusseldorf and on to here. Tony is missing. We split up (while hitching) intending to meet at the YHA. It was closed 13.8.985. ...I will have to sleep rough tonight"

Minds tend to think alike when faced with no place to sleep. Richard found Tony (from Newfoundland, Canada) doing as he was...trying to get sufficiently pissed so that he could sleep on the cold rocky ground under a bridge heading into a car park near the city's heart.

Richard still had the hostel brochure that made him come to Koblenz. It showed a newly renovated Castle with great views of the Rivers. The brochure was so new he could smell the print. The brochures were distributed in all the major hostels heading to Koblenz. ...and yet the hostel had been closed for 6 months and had no sign of opening soon. There had to be a better way of marketing hostels to travellers.! Nomads was born, albeit as a fuzzy, beer induced idea.

Richard spent much of the next ten years mixing travel with hotel and restaurant development. In 1990 he purchased Ayers House Restaurants (in Adelaide, South Australia) before revisiting old lessons learnt.

In February 1994 Richard started Nomads and opened the first hostel in Adelaide. Since then Nomads has become one of Australia's most prolific youth and accommodation marketing companies. In 1995 Nomads began working within the international market place with the development of this Internet site and the introduction of the Nomads Adventure Card and Travel Guide. This was followed in 1997 by the launch of the "Starts Here" accommodation and travel packages now sold around the world.  Nomads prides itself on having accurate and concise information on its hostels.  Whether you are a travel agent in Europe or a traveller in Australia, what you see is what you get.

Nomads Travel was formed to manage the wholesale travel business and to develop the Nomads Adventure Card. Nomads Travel has become a very fast growing aspect of the hostel business. The international traveller is the fastest growing customer segment of Nomads. Indeed, Nomads now actively sells youth travel products in more than 40 countries via 80 travel retailers and wholesalers representing thousands of travel agents.  The average month will see more than 20 different nationalities book travel from this web site alone.

• Nomads is a registered Inbound Tour Operator
• Nomads is a member of the Australian Tourism Export Council www.atec.net.au
• Nomads is a member of the Federation of International Youth Travel Organisations www.fiyto.org 
• Richard McLeod is a founding member of  the Australian "Backpacker Tourism Advisory Panel" 
 
• Nomads has won 4 major tourism marketing and accommodation awards  
• Nomads is a member of most state based tourism organisations

More than 1.5 million Nomads bed nights are occupied in Australia and New Zealand annually.

Nomads World Hotels

More recently Nomads developed Nomads World Hotels Pty Ltd (NWH).  This business operates like a mainstream hotel management company with NWH offering quality management to large multifaceted Backpacker Hostels. Current properties under management include;

• Nomads Maze Backpackers - Sydney (Australia).
• Nomads Industry - Melbourne (Australia)
• Nomads Skylodge - Nadi (Fiji)
• Nomads Fat Camel - Auckland (New Zealand)
• Nomads Capital - Wellington (New Zealand)

NWH expects to open an additional 15 large resort style hostels over the coming three years. These properties will span Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and sleep 4500 travellers every night.  Nomads is known for its consistently high standards as well as for its "homelike" atmosphere created by friendly, caring and trained staff.

More Recently

2004 saw Nomads link with the Bunning family to aid with expansion of the company's property development arm as well as to boost its branding.  Under the shared direction of Richard McLeod and Daniel Bunning, Nomads will be looking at more property development - both new leasehold and freehold sites.

Contact

Richard McLeod - Director
Daniel Bunning - Director
Michael Ebert - NWH Operations Manager Australia
Gordon Burrow - NWH Operations Manger NZ/Fiji
Penny Brand - Sales and Marketing Manager

Sydney Office
Level 3
417 Pitt Street
Sydney NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA
PH:  +61 2 9284 04110
FX:  +61 2 9284 04114
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