About World Nomads

How it all started

In 1997, Simon Monk bought worldnomads.com as his personal website address and created one of the first travel blogs (before ‘blogging’ was invented) by faxing home the stories and sending the film canisters by courier. It was the first step toward establishing our community of World Nomads and toward keeping us connected.

Even though he had a day job, in 2000 he was approached by Wayne Tregaskis and Michael McAuliffe to develop an online travel insurance service for independent travelers. It was a market that everyone said was fraught with fraud, but they felt they could do things differently. As a bunch of passionate travelers themselves, they figured they had a fair idea of what travelers needed and wanted. They decided to address the three key concerns: freedom, safety and connection.

Fast forward to now

Our travel insurance covers people from over 100 countries, with medical and evacuation cover, 24-hour emergency assistance and over 150 adventure activities. Our experienced team bring service, underwriting expertise and technology, making us the number one choice for many of the world's leading travel brands such as Lonely Planet.

But, keeping our travelers safe on the road is about more than just providing great travel insurance, we’ve created language guides for your iPhones, travel blogs so you can share your stories and travel insights to keep you informed, educated and safe when traveling.

Every year we offer travel scholarships to provide unique learning experiences for travelers looking to further their experience in travel photography, travel film, food and writing. And we believe our customers can help change the world by giving a little back when they travel.

Travel Scholarships

For the last ten years, we have helped creative travelers pursue their passions for travel writing, photography and filmmaking by sending them on real-life assignments to be mentored by industry professionals.

By partnering with travel and gear brands, tour operators and DMOs (direct marketing organizations), we are able to create these unique opportunities. These assignments create high-quality, original and inspiring travel content that all partners can leverage.

If you'd like to partner on our next Travel Scholarship, please contact the Scholarships team. Alternatively, if you'd like to promote our Travel Scholarships to your audience and you're an existing affiliate partner, you can click here where you'll see our active Scholarships. Please note you'll only be able to view this content once you log in as an existing partner.

Global and regional campaigns

Over the course of a year, we run two regional (North America) and two global ‘enter & win’ style campaigns that give our travel community the opportunity to experience the world through travel.

We work with our tour operator and gear partners to identify and promote their unforgettable adventure trips and products in these competitions.

If you'd like to partner on our next campaign, please contact the campaigns team. Alternatively, if you'd like to promote our campaigns to your audience and you're an existing affiliate partner, you can click here where you'll see our active campaigns. Please note you'll only be able to view this content once you log in as an existing partner.

Micro-donations through Footprints

Simon Monk founded The Footprints Network in 2004 as a way to enable our customers to give back to the places in which they travel through micro-donations at the point of purchase. As of 2016, over $3 million AUD has been raised for over 100 projects around the world.

The Footprints technology is available to any e-commerce business that would like to empower their customers to fund global community development projects when they buy travel products and services. If this is something you'd like to find out more about, please contact the Footprints team.

Travel insights

With regular travel safety articles and destination guides being released by our editorial team, you can find what’s relevant for your user base on the World Nomads website and link back to these pages using your affiliate links. Your users get a wealth of insights and you earn a referral fee if they buy a policy – win win!