G Adventures boss: ‘Changing mindsets will ‘transform’ travel industry’

Greater numbers of holidaymakers are now seeking more meaningful and experiential trips that focus on the destination instead of amenities, according the founder of G Adventures.

Bruce Poon Tip, the chairman of G Travel Community, told a Travel Weekly webcast: “The travel industry is massive and there’s always going to be a mainstream industry [but] it just takes a few people to change how they travel to have a huge ripple effect.

“We’re definitely seeing that has happened. People are more interested in experiences, less interested in amenities.”

Poon Tip is in London this week for the UK premiere of the G Adventures-backed documentary film, The Last Tourist, on Thursday (May 24).

He told the webcast that his company is seeing “a lot” more new customers than before Covid, such as one family who are now in Tibet with G Adventures – having taken a Disney cruise for their previous holiday.

“It is really good to see the destination is paramount in [people’s] decisions. We want people to have meaningful experiences,” he told Travel Weekly.

“Before [Covid], people were involved in selling thread counts on sheets or 10 different restaurants, ziplining, go-karting, indoor surfing, Broadway plays – whatever was
a distraction.

“The destination was no longer important and I think, as an industry, we should be concerned about that.”

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He said his company is now seeing clients who are younger and older than before – and more people “staying longer and going deeper in destinations”.

“The thing I’ve noticed the most coming out of Covid is how the mindset of our travellers has changed,” he added.

“We’re seeing people on tours being much more open: open to change, open to delays…and being flexible.

“We can listen to a group and say, should we go here or here, depending on what the group wants.

“Above everything, they’re more concerned about the communities.

“This is another message of The Last Tourist…that travel is not a right, it’s a privilege.

“There are so few people on the planet to get to choose, to say: ‘I want to go on holiday,’ when you look at the numbers compared to the [global] population.

“If we can change mindset just a little, whether it’s in the travel industry, or with a film like The Last Tourist…that mindset will transform the industry.

“Knowing that, by travelling, you’re changing lives, you’re having a positive impact on not just yourself, but communities.”

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