G Adventures Ignites The Night With Nat. Geo Deal
Bruce Poon Tip is eager to let people know he still has “lots of gas in the tank” after 25 years in business. And to prove it, the G Adventures founder made a series of significant announcements at the company’s Ignite the Night 25th anniversary gala in Toronto last night, but none more significant than news that it has partnered with “the biggest travel brand” in the world, National Geographic.
With hundreds of guests in attendance at a Distillery District venue, and amidst a colourful celebration that included Brazilian dancers and showgirls and an innovative fundraiser for its Planterra charitable arm, Poon Tip made the announced with special guest Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society, who flew in from Washington, DC, for the announcement.
“We are thrilled to be working with National Geographic—an organization that shares our values and a similar approach to travel — to offer our guests unique experiences that will forever change their expectations of travel,” said Bruce Poon Tip, of the new line of experiential trips to destinations all over the globe, dubbed National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures.
“Our partnership with G Adventures adds an exciting and accessible range of travel opportunities to our portfolio of extraordinary ways to explore the planet. We’re excited to invite travellers around the world to experience the destinations they’ve dreamed about, get to know people in other cultures and make a positive impact while doing it,” added Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society.
A full line-up of tours will be published on Dec. 15, with departures beginning Jan. 5, 2016.
Poon Tip also unveiled a new “50 in 5” charitable initiative, which will see the company implement 50 charitable projects globally in the next five years with an investment of $5 million. Poon Tip noted that G Adventures’ has done 50 in its first 25 years of operation and was ready to boost its socially responsible mandate even further.
Another major announcement involved the unveiling of G Adventures’ new state-of-the-industry overland vehicle in Africa, The Lando. With such features as air conditioning, WiFi and seat charging ports, Poon Tip enthused, “The Lando isn’t a truck, it’s an entirely new way of travel on road.” The vehicles are expected to be up and running by Spring, 2016.
Finally, Poon Tip, who authored his autobiography Looptail in 2013, which reached No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list, unveiled his new book, do BIG SMALL things, which will be available in bookstores on Oct. 27. An unconventional book “with few words,” the hardcover is designed to be a personal scrapbook/diary of life for its owners, encouraging them to, for example, fill in pie charts with “how you spend your time” and “what makes you happy,” or to write in “this was my rite of passage” and “this is advice for my future self…”
There are also tear-out postcards with messages or images meant, in the spirit of night, to ignite inspiration.
