After a brief career as a teacher Derek Moore worked for some 13 years as a Tour Leader leading group tours for various overland and safari companies before co-founding Explore Worldwide, one of the earliest adventure travel companies. He was Operations Director at Explore for some 20 years, developing itineraries and programmes in most parts of the world and seeing changes in the group tour sector over those years.

After selling Explore he became Chairman of AITO, and additionally now presents seminars and training sessions for tourist boards and DMCs on aspects of marketing and promoting niche tourism products. In his spare time he plays golf and music, although accuracy is a feature of neither.