G Adventures Forms Separate Holding Company, Makes Executive Changes
by Daniel McCarthy /Bruce Poon Tip in Machu Picchu. Photo: G Adventures
G Adventures, the community tourism and small group travel operator, made a couple of major announcements on Friday.
The first is a formation of a new holding company called G Travel Community (GTC) that will bring all of the company’s brands under one umbrella.
The goal of the new holding company is to build a set of travel companies that have "community-led growth" at their center. G Adventures will be the spotlight brand in the GTC portfolio while two other brands will join it—G Touring (Travelsphere and Just You), and TruTravels. Both of those new brands will be based in the United Kingdom.
The formation also helps G Adventures continue its ambition to implement an acquisition strategy for its business, something that was propelled by the Certares investment in the company in 2021.
“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,” Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of G Adventures, said in a statement.
All brands under the GTC will be supported from the same centralized administrative standpoint. Each one will operate with its own separate sales, marketing, customer service, product development, and tour operations teams. Each one will also maintain its own unique values and identity.
Effective immediately, Bruce Poon Tip will now serve as chairman of GTC. Ben Perlo, who is currently serving as managing director in the U.S., will now also serve as president and CEO of G Adventures, along with his current role. Jeff Russill, who currently serves as COO of G Adventures, will now become CEO of GTC.
“G Adventures has always been passionate about building community within our organization, among our travelers, and among our partners,” Perlo said in a statement on Friday.
“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," he added.
