Sustainable Travel and the Social Revolution

In 1990, Bruce Poon Tip founded G Adventures from his apartment by maxing out two credit cards when no bank would give him a loan to start his business. At Travel Massive’s pre-ITB party on March 3rd, G Adventures will be giving away copies of his story “Looptail”. Here’s a glimpse of his book where he talks about creating a sustainable travel company and his insight on a new social revolution. 

The travel and tourism world looked very different 24 years ago. Packaged holiday experiences had a stronghold on travellers’ experiences and travel companies went out of their way to ensure holidaymakers found the comforts of home wherever they went.

I saw a gap in the market for people who wanted to travel, but not in large packs or on packaged holidays, nor alone as independent backpackers. I wanted to move away from the ‘home away from home’ model of travel to provide travellers with a way to get to know a place and its people, and at the same time have a positive impact on the communities visited through wealth distribution. So in 1990 my company G Adventures was born and we took travellers to the Amazon jungle in Ecuador for the first time.

With G Adventures I have created a sustainable travel experience for travellers as well as a business model founded on freedom and happiness. My book, Looptail, looks at the history of the company and how sustainability has always been at the heart of what we stand for. I believe the traditional triple bottom line of “people, planet and profit” must expand to what I call the quintuple bottom line, which includes “passion and purpose.”

At G Adventures we have actively embraced the social revolution to become a social enterprise, but all businesses now have the opportunity to connect with their customers in new ways, creating a unique connection that previously could not be achieved.

A key moment for G Adventures’ evolution in to a social enterprise was the launch of our non-profit foundation, Planeterra. In addition to running trips and experiences for our travellers, we can help solve social problems and find economic solutions in local communities around the world by visiting positive social projects during our trips through Planeterra.

When His Holiness the Dalai Lama agreed to write the foreword for my book, to say that I was humbled and honoured would be an understatement. It’s the first time that His Holiness has endorsed a business book not directly related to his teachings. For me, it was a validation that we were heading down the right path as a business that transcends its industry and that culture, and that community and karma do matter in business.

Bruce Poon Tip will be speaking on Wednesday March 4^th at ITB Berlin in a session called ‘The Future Of Tourism: Social, Ecological And Economical Sustainability In Harmony’. It will be held at 4.45pm in the London auditorium, Hall 7.1b. The session will be live streamed online at: http://www.techcast.com/events/itb/en/

Meet Bruce in our eTravel Insiders Lounge on Thursday March 5 at 4pm (Stand 131 Hall 6.1).