Checking In with G Adventures Founder Bruce Poon Tip

Bruce Poon Tip founded G Adventures almost 35 years ago – launching what would become one of the largest small group travel companies in the world. 

G Adventures has always been a trailblazer in the industry. The tour operator helped popularize small group travel, which is increasingly becoming a top trend in the land tour segment. (TMR’s Outlook on Land Tours, 2024 white paper found that 59% of clients prefer group sizes up to 10 people.) 

Being dedicated to community tourism from its inception, G Adventures also predicted the current sustainable tourism trends – particularly its focus on benefiting the people and places travelers visit. Today, the company has operations in 100 countries and is working on 300 new projects with communities around the world. 

TMR sat down with Poon Tip to discuss G Adventures’ milestone 35th year, what’s on the horizon in the small group travel space, and where the company’s headed next.

Solo (not single) travel

The tour operator is heading into 2025 with a slew of exciting developments. G Adventures announced 12 FAM trips for the upcoming year, a new product line for solo travel, and the return of its Change Makers rewards program for GX Summit: Jordan.   

G Adventures’ new “solo-ish” travel style, unveiled last month, is a new trip style designed exclusively for solo travelers. Poon Tip told TMR the media response to the announcement was “overwhelming.” 

The solo-ish packages were developed to meet a growing demand for solo travel that addressed concerns like loneliness – while being distinct from “singles” trips.

“When we were looking within G Adventures trips, we saw we were getting a lot of solo travelers, but that they weren’t necessarily single,” he explained. “When you start saying ‘singles’ tour, it’s a totally different vibe.”  

The solo-ish trips are particularly well-suited for men who are in committed relationships but are traveling alone. Already G Adventures has seen a rising number of male travelers booking solo-ish, often because their partners aren’t interested in adventure travel.

Industry trends and predictions

In addition to the rise in solo travel, Poon Tip has observed a shift in older travelers being more physically fit. G Adventures’ Geluxe travel style was created with this in mind: the trips combine adventurous itineraries with comfortable accommodations.

“The trend we’re seeing is that people are staying active longer,” he told TMR. “We didn’t see that 20 years ago … you’d have one or two people that stay active and healthy, but now there’s a whole generation of people that are staying active living longer.”

G Adventure’s Geluxe category was created to tap into this emerging market. The trips combine activities like kayaking and rafting with premium accommodations and amenities for the 50+ product. and has thus far been a success. “It’s so popular,” Poon Tip said. “We’ve launched a lot of products in 34 years, and Geluxe is the fastest product launch we’ve ever had.”

Looking to the future, Poon Tip predicts FIT will continue to grow in popularity. “I think people will continue to move away from the more mainstream styles of travel … There’s a whole kind of experience economy coming. I think we’re going to see more people want to travel for experiences and not luxuries and amenities.”

G Adventures’ biggest challenge: meeting demand

The tour operator business is thriving. It was one of the fastest parts of the travel industry to return after COVID – in fact, G Adventures is already well above its business pre-pandemic. 

“We’ve just come off our best year ever in 34 years. Our last quarter is up 20% year-over-year” Poon Tip told TMR. “We’re 30% beyond 2019 numbers now.” 

With the swift growth comes its own set of problems, Poon Tip told TMR.

“The issues we have now as an organization is scaling problems,” he explained. “The business came back so quickly, our challenges are scaling fast enough to meet the demand.”

Another hurdle adventure tourism operators face is airlift. For small group travel companies like G Adventures, getting travelers to their destinations can be a challenge.

 “The industry is still bouncing back [from the pandemic] in many ways… we’re still not at 100% capacity in terms of air routes we had prior to COVID,” he told TMR. 

Poon Tip believes that airlift will improve, however, and that lower fuel prices will mean more affordable airfare, bolstering the travel industry. “When fuel prices go down and flights [become] cheaper, we’re going to see more and more people travelling.”