G Adventures celebrates agents, talks trends and new Geluxe trips

“We love our travel agents. We can’t do what we do without you,” G Adventures’ managing director David Green announced last night to the hand-selected group of top selling travel advisors invited to attend the ‘An Evening with G Adventures and Friends’ event in Toronto. “We haven’t just filled seats. We were very, very particular about who came here tonight. From the agency community, you are within the top 100 in Ontario, that’s why you are here. You are the best of the best.”

Joined by destination partners from Prom Peru, Visit Portugal, Brand USA, ProColombia and Visit Jordan, the evening featured multiple trip giveaways — including a prize to embark on the nine-day Hiking Utah’s Might Five itinerary with airfare courtesy of Air Canada — a networking session over cocktails, a three-course dinner, travel trend insights and a look at what the future holds for G Adventures.

Sneak peek at phase two of Geluxe

During the evening, Hilary Arsenault, GPS for Quebec and the Maritimes, gave some details about the soon-to-launch second phase of Geluxe, a new upgraded travel style that was first announced in November. Notably, this travel style is largely being driven by women travellers.

“This was our fastest growing product launch in the history of G Adventures,” she said. “It has a little more upgraded accommodations while also staying active. The demographic for Geluxe, they are more comfortable to pay for the deluxe service that we’re offering.”

Although it’s not officially launching until March 5, she shared that there are 17 new trips being added to the collection that will take place in 10 new countries — Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Iceland, India, Kenya, Portugal, Tanzania and Turkey.

While a venue like the Fairmont Royal York is more upscale than a traditional G Adventures hotel, Green said the property was chosen because the Geluxe tours feature an “Your OMG Stay” — a stand-out style of accommodation selected for its impressive history, design, or surrounding experiences — such as the Cardamom Tented Camp in the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia or the glamping experience at Changa Safari Camp in Zimbabwe.

Females are driving solo travel

Fresh off of a record breaking sales month in January, Erin Rogers, national sales manager for G Adventures highlighted some interesting booking and travel trends. “We’re seeing people booking longer trips, travelling more frequently, spending more money,” she said.

Notably, she said travellers are still looking to catch up on their travel bucket list and do things like watch the sunrise over Uluru, go on a wildlife safari in Africa or go on a polar cruise in Antarctica.

“[Japan] is one of those destinations that travellers can’t get enough of since it reopened,” she added. “We’re seeing a rise of bookings in Japan where G is actually recording a 134 per cent increase in bookings for 2024.”

Another destination that is boding well is Portugal, which is showing a 33 per cent increase over 2022 numbers.

Not only is solo travel huge, but Arsenault shared that 42 per cent of G Adventures’ business comes from female solo travellers. Overall, 65 per cent of G Adventures travellers are female.

“It’s a massive number,” she said. “If you’re looking at what to specialize in, this is a really big area of opportunity. I like to think it’s because women are more adventurous.”

Another trend is that travellers care more about supporting local people and the community when they hit the road. “One of the things we all learned during the pandemic is how important it is to support local people and small business,” she said. “The same goes for when you and your clients travel, as your dollars have an amazing impact on the people and the places that you visit.”

Age is nothing but a number

Interestingly, while G Adventures sees a big chunk of business from travellers between the ages of 20-39, there’s also a significant uptick of people in the 55-69 age range, which Rogers said may come as a surprise to some.

“That’s something to think about if you’re not selling into this demographic — they’re the ones who are consuming G Adventures tours,” she added.