From a one-person Australian outpost to a business turning over about $29 million a year, Tim Oakes is preparing to close a defining chapter in Inside Travel’s local story.
Oakes will finish as Australia Managing Director on 11 September 2026. His departure ends a tenure that began in 2016, when he became the founding member of Inside Travel Group’s Australian operation.
From zero to $29 million
It was not exactly a case of inheriting a polished corner office and a full client book. Oakes began with the hard yards: establishing the local business, recruiting staff and building a market for specialist travel to Japan and wider Asia.
A decade later, the numbers tell their own story. The Australian operation has grown from zero to approximately $29 million in annual turnover. Along the way, InsideJapan and InsideAsia became established brands in the Australian market, supported by a specialist local team.
“After nearly 11 years of leadership at Inside Travel, I have decided that the time is right to begin the next chapter of my career,” Oakes said.
For Oakes, the departure comes with understandable pride. The Australian arm did more than expand during a buoyant period for travel. It also had to survive the COVID-19 shutdown, when international tourism was brought almost to a standstill.
Building through travel’s hardest years
That experience tested every travel business. For a company built around long-haul cultural travel, closed borders were hardly a minor inconvenience. Yet Inside Travel retained its Australian presence and was well placed to benefit when demand for Japan and Asia returned.
The timing is significant. Japan has become one of the world’s most sought-after destinations, while Australian travellers have increasingly looked beyond the standard sightseeing circuit. Food, culture, neighbourhoods and local experiences are now central to many itineraries. That is precisely the territory Inside Travel has spent years cultivating.
The wider Inside Travel Group traces its roots to 2000. It operates the InsideJapan and InsideAsia brands and has a global footprint spanning Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. The company became a certified B Corporation in 2023, strengthening its credentials around responsible business, governance and social and environmental impact.
Inside Travel Group Co-Founder Simon King said Oakes had played an important role in making Australia a significant part of the global business.
“What he and the team have achieved over the past decade has exceeded all expectations. Australia has become a significant part of the global business, with a strong reputation among travellers, trade partners and industry peers.”
King also pointed to the strength of the local leadership team as part of Oakes’ legacy. That point will now be tested in practice.
Nicole Newport takes the reins
Nicole Newport will become Interim Australia Managing Director from 12 September. The planned transition is designed to provide continuity for customers, travel trade partners and staff while Inside Travel enters its next phase.
That succession matters. Leadership changes can be awkward when a business has been closely associated with the executive who built it. The cleanest handovers are usually those where the departing leader leaves behind capable people, sound systems and a business that can keep moving without reaching for the emergency manual.
For the Australian travel trade, Oakes’ exit also marks how far specialist touring has come since 2016. Travellers are better informed, more adventurous and more interested in meaningful local experiences. At the same time, travel advisors increasingly value operators that can supply deep destination knowledge rather than a catalogue covering half the planet.
Inside Travel’s specialist model has benefited from that shift. Its focus on Japan and Asia, combined with local expertise and culturally immersive travel, has given the company a clear position in an increasingly crowded market.
Oakes leaves with a commercial result that would make most start-up founders reach for the good glasses. Growing an Australian operation from zero to around $29 million in turnover is substantial. Doing so across a decade that included the worst disruption modern tourism has faced makes the achievement more notable.
The next question is no longer whether Inside Travel Australia can grow. It is whether that growth can continue under new leadership.
For Oakes, 11 September marks the end of a remarkable run. For Newport and the Inside Travel team, 12 September begins the next one. The start-up phase is long gone; the foundations are firmly in place.
By: Michelle Warner – © 2026.
Read Time: 4 minutes.
Author Bio:
Michelle Warner has always carried stories the way others carry passports lightly, faithfully, and with purpose. She learned her craft in newsrooms, shaping sentences with care, before swapping deadlines for departures as a flight attendant with some of the world’s great airlines. Years aloft sharpened her eye for character and deepened her fondness for the small, dignified rituals of travel, the quiet kindness of strangers, the poetry of arrival, the patience learned between time zones.
Now grounded by choice, Michelle has come home to writing with the same calm authority she once brought to turbulent cabins. Her prose blends an editor’s discipline with a traveller’s wonder, tinged with humour and reverence for the golden age of travel. Each piece feels like a handwritten boarding pass, gracious, observant, and unmistakably alive.
