TORONTO — With growth comes new organizational strategies, and for G Adventures, that means a brand new holding company, one that emphasizes the spirit of community tourism that G Adventures has championed since day one.

The new company, G Travel Community (GTC), brings existing and new brand acquisitions under the same parent brand. The current brands joining G Adventures in the GTC portfolio are G Touring (Travelsphere and Just You) and TruTravels, both based out of the UK. G Adventures bought Travelsphere and Just You in 2017and TruTravels in 2018.

Planeterra, G Adventures’ non-profit partner, will also benefit from GTC’s ‘shared services’ model.

All brands will be supported from a centralized administrative standpoint, with each brand retaining its own sales and marketing function, customer services, product development, unique style of tour operations, and its own unique values and identity.

LEADERSHIP CHANGES

The creation of GTC also means new opportunities for several members of the executive team. All leadership changes take effect immediately.

Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of G Adventures, will also take on the title of Chairman, G Travel Community.

Jeff Russill, currently Chief Operating Officer for G Adventures, will become the CEO of GTC, overseeing the G Adventures, TruTravels and G Touring brands.

Ben Perlo, currently managing director for G Adventures in the U.S., becomes President and CEO for the G Adventures brand, in addition to his current role in the short-term. Perlo will remain based in Boston.

Poon Tip says the purpose of GTC is to create a community of travel companies that have ‘community-led growth’ at the core of their strategies, and a shared belief in the power of changing peoples’ lives through travel.

He 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,” he says.

“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.

“Everything we do is about having a greater impact. For 32 years G Adventures has had a positive impact on both our travellers and the communities we visit, but our goal is always to have a far bigger impact in the wider world of tourism.

“With the formation of GTC we are finally creating that community – a stable of travel brands that can really drive change to a wider demographic of people who love to travel, but at the same time want to change the world,” he added.