Canadian Travel Hall Of Fame 2024 Profiles: Bruce Poon Tip – Changing The World, One Small Group At A Time

Bruce Poon Tip is the archetype of an entrepreneur.

At 12 years old in Calgary, Alberta, the G Adventures founder wasn’t content to be a paper boy — he accumulated routes and subcontracted them to boost his earnings. By 16, he had started three businesses of his own and been fired from the training programs for both McDonald’s and Denny’s. Are there any bigger badges for a budding business-builder?

Poon Tip says he’s never really worked for anyone else, telling one reporter: “I imagine it’s horrible.” (I’m sure most of us would agree it has its moments.) But in an interview with TravelPulse Canada, Poon Tip asserted that his lack of experience working with another company “is the biggest hole in my game.”

Looking at his 35-year career – he’s a ridiculously youthful-looking 57-year-old now – it’s hard to agree. Poon Tip has built G Adventures into the world’s largest small group adventure travel company. There are 28 offices worldwide, staffed with 2,200 employees. More than 200,000 travellers per year choose from over 750 tours to visit more than 100 countries on all seven continents.

The numbers are impressive, but Poon Tip’s most important impact has been in creating a profitable company on a global scale under the philosophy that travel and tourism should be a force for good and a significant distributor of wealth to the small businesses, social enterprises and people of host nations.

Bruce Poon Tip, Chairman, G Travel Community. (Photo Credit: G Adventures)

The origin story for G Adventures is well known. Poon Tip was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to a Chinese father and a Chinese-Venezuelan Spanish mother. He moved to Calgary with his family when he was six. On a rite-of-passage backpacking trip to Asia, he returned with the idea of creating a travel company that would bridge the gap between backpackers and mainstream travellers — and foster strong connections with local people.

Poon Tip launched G Adventures, or G.A.P. Adventures as it was first named, on a whim and a prayer – or more accurately, in a garage with $800 in savings and a couple of overstretched credit cards.

Poon Tip told TravelPulse Canada that he didn’t have a great vision of building a global travel company, but over the years, evolving technology made the impossible possible.

“In 1990, faxes weren’t even that common. We were still using telexes and sending deposits by mail. Then fax machines exploded, then internet, e-mail, smartphones, social media. For a travel company, everything just got easier. Small or large, everyone has the same tools to create connections with partners and customers.”

In 1993, Poon Tip says he realized that Canadians often only have two weeks of holidays, while Europeans get four to six weeks and “Aussies work between holidays.” That insight spurred the company’s international expansion, leading to many consecutive years of 40%+ revenue growth.

In 2003, Poon Tip founded G Adventures’ non-profit partner, the Planeterra Foundation. He tells TravelPulse Canada that having seen the Foundation’s impact, he wishes he had done it earlier. Under the slogan, “Uplifting Communities Through Tourism,” Planeterra’s goal is to help local organizations and communities use tourism as a catalyst to improve people’s lives, protect their natural environments and celebrate their culture.

“Put simply, it is a better kind of tourism – improving the lives of community members as they provide travellers with better experiences,” Planeterra states on its website. It now has more than 500 community tourism partners in 80 countries, and 90% of G Adventures travellers will visit a community tourism enterprise on their tour.

Bruce Poon Tip created G Adventures, now the world’s largest small-group adventure travel operator. (Photo Credit: John Kirk)

G Adventures and Planeterra teamed up to create the GX World Community Tourism Summit. It launched last year in Peru, and will be held in India this September.

As G Adventures has grown and flourished, Poon Tip’s role has expanded and shifted. He has become a global leader in social entrepreneurship, leadership, disruptive innovation and immersive travel. He has addressed the United Nations and the World Bank, spoken at the headquarters of Apple and Google, and delivered keynote speeches at TED events.

“I’ve known Bruce for many years but only recently did I have the opportunity to travel with him when G adventures hosted us at their first annual GX conference in Peru,” says John Kirk, president and founder of TravelPulse Canada. “I can tell you from first hand experience he talks the talk and  more importantly walks the walk. Seeing his blend of being an entrepreneur and the balance he maintains in his philanthropic endeavours is quite something.”

“A quote from the G Adventures “Core Values” website page gives insight Poon Tip and his company’s rebellious, disruptive and socially conscious ethos:

“While most companies are busy thinking outside the box, we learned a long time ago that sometimes it’s best to just get rid of the box altogether. That’s why we encourage our staff – and our travellers – to embrace the bizarre, step off the beaten path and boldly embark down the road less travelled. It’s the reason our company culture celebrates individuality, champions diversity and inspires fearless innovation.”

Bruce Poon Tip in Peru. (Photo Credit: G Adventures)

There is one number that says a lot about the G Adventures approach. Most of its tours have a ‘Ripple Score’ prominently displayed in the description. The higher the Ripple Score percentage, the more money stays in the local communities travellers visit. On many tours that number is in the high 90s or 100.

Poon Tip outlined his personal business philosophy in the 2013 book ‘Looptail,’ which debuted at #1 on the Globe and Mail hardcover non-fiction bestsellers list. The book expands on his belief that “community, culture and karma” matter in business.

Looptail was endorsed by an unlikely book reviewer — Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He praised Poon Tip for being “one of those entrepreneurs who understand that human dignity, freedom, and genuine well-being are more important than the mere accumulation of wealth.”

That statement sums up some of the things that make Poon Tip exceptional. While he may not be suited to work for someone else, most of us have to. And he has taken the critical importance of “human dignity, freedom, and genuine well-being” that the Dalai Lama mentions as the cornerstones of the G Adventures workplace.

The company is a 10-time-plus winner of Canada’s 50 Best-Managed Companies, and has been recognized many times as a great place to work – in Canada, Australia, the UK and the U.S.

TravelPulse Canada’s John Kirk interviews Bruce Poon-Tip at the first GX Summit in Peru. (Photo Credit: John Kirk)

Poon Tip is a supremely self-assured man. You have to be, he says, to have the confidence to bring your ideas to the world. “Most entrepreneurs are self-centred control freaks. My leadership style is a lifelong project. Self-reflection and honesty is what makes great leaders, and I always make time for that in my day.”

The G Adventures founder has often ruffled the feathers of other tourism operators, with his outspoken views on over-tourism and mass tourism, which don’t always drive commensurate benefits for local communities. This was exemplified in his role as executive producer of the documentary film The Last Tourist – Travel Has Lost Its Way.

Poon Tip says that when the travel industry was shut down in 2020 for the COVID pandemic, there was a great opportunity to realize that “normal wasn’t so great.”

“The travel industry was all about selling capacity and amenities. Thread counts of the sheets. More and bigger. That’s not sustainable. I think a lot more people want more meaningful experiences. Travellers have changed. We’re on the extreme end of community tourism, but the whole industry could do a little bit more and become an industry that transforms lives.”

Poon Tip firmly believes that the company he founded back in 1990 has changed lives. “I think we’ve had a massive global impact on the tourism industry. We’ve educated tourists and consumers that there’s a better way.”

G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip. (Photo via G Adventures) (Photo Credit: Bruce Poon Tip)

Bruce Poon Tip’s induction into the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame is the latest in a long list of honours and accolades. In 2012, Bruce was inducted into the Social Venture Network Hall of Fame, joining celebrated entrepreneurs such as Virgin’s Richard Branson and The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.

He was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and was inducted into the British Travel and Hospitality Hall of Fame in 2018. He was also honoured as one of AFAR USA’s ‘Travel Vanguards’ — a visionary travel industry leader who is changing the face of travel for the better. Last year, Poon Tip was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

“I feel very honoured to be named to the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame. It’s important to me and to my parents who gave me the gift of opportunity. It’s easy to say you or your company is great, but it’s better when someone else does.”

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