The new year is already seeing changes in the travel industry, including the formation of a new holding company for community tourism pioneer and small-group adventure operator G Adventures.
The new holding company will bring existing and new brand acquisitions under one overarching parent brand, named G Travel Community (GTC).
According to GTC, the brand’s purpose is to create a community of travel companies that have ‘community-led growth’ at the core of their strategies. The GTC brands are united in their mission to bring people together through travel to affect positive change – changing the lives of the traveler community and of the local people in communities benefiting from tourism, as well as all GTC team members across the business.
The current brands joining G Adventures in the GTC portfolio are G Touring (Travelsphere and Just You) and TruTravels, both based out of the United Kingdom. All brands will be supported from a centralized administrative standpoint, with each brand retaining its own sales and marketing function, customer services, product development and tour operations, and importantly its own unique values and identity.
The launch of GTC also heralds a number of senior leadership changes within the business.Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of G Adventures, will take on the title of chairman, G Travel Community.
Meanwhile, Ben Perlo—vice president of the Family Travel Association’s board and current managing director for G Adventures in the United States—will take on the role of president and chief executive officer for the G Adventures brand, in addition to his current role in the short-term. Perlo will remain based in Boston, United States.
Bruce Poon Tip, the chairman of GTC and founder of G Adventures, says the timing is perfect to announce the new community-centric business model.
“G Adventures formed an investment partnership with Certares one year ago, with the goal of implementing an acquisition strategy for the business. The pandemic lasted much longer than we thought it would, which gave us the time to build an even more solid structure and foundation to deliver on our long term multi-brand strategy, and to place a laser focus on the importance of cementing a sense of community throughout our organization.
“The formation of GTC – the travel community – signifies that this sense of community is truly at the heart of our entire business – from the naming of our holding company all the way through to our community tourism projects on the ground. We are the pioneers of community tourism, so it’s exciting to see this be fully embraced internally as well as externally.”
In his new role as chief executive officer for G Adventures, Perlo says, “G Adventures has always been passionate about building community within our organization, among our travelers and among our partners.
“By creating GTC, our brands – and G Adventures specifically – will be able to have a far bigger impact when it comes to using tourism as a force for good. I’m thrilled to be leading G into this new phase where we’ll be able to do, even better, what we do best: help change lives through travel.”
The GTC holding company is now fully operational, with all leadership changes taking effect immediately. For more information, visit gadventures.com.
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