G Adventures celebrates 35 years of community tourism leadership with a journey back to where it all began

Tuesday, Aug 19, 2025 0

Adventure travel pioneer partners with GSTC for Groundbreaking Global Digital Series “Travel Redefined: Tourism for People and Planet”

G Adventures, the world leader in community tourism, has joined forces with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) as part of an industry-leading global digital series “Travel Redefined: Tourism for People and Planet”. Produced in collaboration with strategic content creator Content With Purpose, the series showcases how sustainable tourism can create a positive impact for both travellers and destinations worldwide. The digital series content will be available across GSTC’s global platforms and is available to view here.

As part of the digital series, G Adventures has produced two compelling pieces of content that highlight the transformative power of community tourism and follows G Adventures founder, Bruce Poon Tip, on an emotional journey back to the Ecuadorian Amazon to visit one of their very first community tourism partners.

As G Adventures enters its milestone 35th anniversary year, the series showcases how community tourism has been woven into its responsible business model since its very first trips in 1990 and demonstrates the unwavering commitment to responsible travel and its role as a pioneer in community-based tourism experiences.

Community tourism – a force for good:

“Community tourism is about including everyone in the tourism supply chain and everyone benefitting as tourism grows in these countries” – Bruce Poon Tip.

This thought leadership discussion with Bruce Poon Tip explores the principles and practice of community tourism, examining how meaningful cultural exchange can benefit both travellers and host communities while preserving local traditions and creating economic opportunities.

“Travel is a privilege. There’s very few people on the planet who get to travel,and with that privilege comes great responsibility. It’s a beautiful thing when you decide to go on holiday and your holiday can be an amazing form of giving back and can transform lives and lift people out of poverty.”

“You can see it with all of our Indigenous and local community relationships around the world, they celebrate our success and we can celebrate with them. As we rise, they rise. That’s a really important part of the benefit of travel, because when our customers come into those countries, when they have the community behind them, the community supporting them, the community welcoming them and the community sharing with them, then everybody rises,” he adds.

The company’s approach addresses a critical gap in traditional tourism economics. As Poon Tip notes in the thought leadership piece: “We’re going to some of the 40 poorest countries in the world. And in them, there’s a lot of people living below the poverty line and community tourism has the opportunity to bring those people into the tourism economy. Depending on the country, there’s many studies that show how much money actually stays in the local economy when somebody travels. Anything from $5 out of every $100 stays in the actual economy of that country, which is really sad because we are spending money and we are buying services. But when a company’s business model is to drive money out of the country, it’s a missed opportunity.. and local people aren’t benefitting from you being there.”

Celebrating culture, protecting nature:

This short documentary follows Bruce Poon Tip on an emotional journey back to the Ecuadorian Amazon to reconnect with an Indigenous family who hosted G Adventures’ very first trips 35 years ago. In 1990, during one of the first product scouting trips in Quito, Bruce heard about an Indigenous community who lived in the Amazon. Intrigued, he managed to organise a visit to meet the community, travelling by road and boat to the rural village of Pimpilala. It was here he first met Delfin, an Indigenous man, and his family, whose lives were centred around living in harmony and protecting ‘Pachamama’. Having had dreams that a white man would visit them, arriving by boat, Delfin accepted Bruce into the family, providing a rare window into their traditions and way of life. Fast forward to today, and Delfin and his family have been hosting G Adventures travellers for over three decades. Through the income earned through tourism, the community have been able to protect their Indigenous culture, remaining in their village while many other communities have had to move to the city in search of work.

“The significance of this place… it’s where it all began for me. Everything that G Adventures stands for is right here in this community,” reflects Poon Tip during his reunion with the community that launched his company’s commitment to responsible tourism.

The film captures the deep mutual respect between G Adventures and the Indigenous community, with Delfin sharing: “We know we have only one mother – Pachamama – and together we are one family, children of the jungle. With all our hearts – on behalf of my family, of the jungle and the spirit of the sky, may Pachamama hear that we are here with our brother Bruce to protect. Because through him and through the visitors, we have protected this jungle.”

The Amazon documentary was specifically selected to illustrate G Adventures’ long-term commitment to community partnerships and the profound impact that responsible tourism can have when implemented thoughtfully and sustainably from the very beginning of a company’s journey.

The documentary powerfully illustrates this approach in action, showcasing how cultural preservation and tourism can work hand-in-hand.

“Tourism has been a vehicle to not only bring pride to the community, but that cultural heritage preservation is a very important part to responsible tourism and sustainability that people often don’t talk about. You are interacting with the family of an Amazon tribe, whose traditions they are willing to share with you. They’re willing to let you into their lives and they’re also interested in learning about you. They take away just as much from you being here,” says Poon Tip.

Delfin echoes this sentiment: “It’s very important that travellers come so they can see a forest that is still protected because in some places everything is already destroyed. The most important thing is also to learn the culture and to teach the culture to the visitors, what it was like in our ancestral life, how we loved each other.”

Since 1990, G Adventures has pioneered the community tourism model, and now works with over 130 local communities to ensure that tourism benefits reach the people who need them most. The collaboration with GSTC and Content With Purpose represents a strategic alignment of organisations committed to advancing sustainable tourism practices worldwide.