G Adventures

G Adventures (Formally Gap Adventures)
Tour Operator
Industry Tourism
Founded 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Headquarters Toronto, Canada
Key people
 Bruce Poon Tip, Founder and CEO
Products Small group Adventure Travel
Number of employees
 1,500
Website www.gadventures.com

G Adventures (Formerly Gap Adventures) is the largest small group adventure travel company in the world and offers socially and environmentally sensitive travel .

History

Bruce Poon Tip founded Gap Adventures (Gap being an acronym for "Great Adventure People") in 1990 after returning from a backpacking tour of Asia. Poon Tip visited university campuses to advertise his adventure tours, and Gap's first tour visited Ecuador in February 1991 with six clients. Gap later started selling tours overseas, partnering with local companies in Europe, Australia and New Zealand to offer destinations in South America and Africa. In 2008 Gap Adventures was sued by American clothing company, The Gap, over the name, which sparked a five year court battle that resulted in Gap Adventures changing its name to G Adventures.

Name Change

G Adventures was required to change its name by the U.S. District court that deemed the brand was an infringement on GAP Inc. clothing. The ruling stated that the name and brand Gap Adventures caused legitimate confusion and dilution of the brand for the clothing company and their khakis and therefore G Adventures was required to change its name by October 1, 2011.[1] Bruce Poon Tip decided to rebrand the company with the belief that the company culture was the true brand for G Adventures, which provided the competitive advantage that his company required to be successful.[2]

Company Culture and Values

G Adventures has received many awards. Staff turnover annually is 5% at G Adventures, whereas in the travel industry it is typically around 35%.[3] The company culture is driven by five core values:

In 2010, G Adventures officially declared traditional Human Resources "dead", moving typically administrative HR tasks to the finance department and creating two unique departments - the Culture Club, which features people with the job title "Karma Chameleons" (named after the hit song Karma Chameleon) focusing on raising company morale and encouraging the Core Values world wide and the Talent Agency, who are dedicated to recruiting and talent management.[4]

Partnership with MIF/IDB

In 2013, G Adventures entered into a $1.3 million partnership with the Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB/MIF). IDB/MIF is the leading source of development funding for Latin America and the Caribbean. G Adventures is the only privately owned travel company to receive such a grant and will be building five new long-term, sustainable tourism projects over the next 3 years in Latin America.[5]

Awards and Other Recognition

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kunopaski, Terrilyn. "GAP Adventure Loses in Trademark Suit from The Gap, Inc.". Travel Hot News. Retrieved Sep 28, 2011.
  2. ↑ Pachner, Joanna. "The Gospel According to Bruce". Rogers Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  3. ↑ Pachner, Joanna. "The Gospel According to Bruce". ProfitGuide Magazine. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  4. ↑ Henneman, Todd. "Is HR at It's Breaking Point". Workforce. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  5. ↑ Stanleigh, Sean (April 4, 2013). "Tourism Program for Latin America". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "iPhone in Business - G Adventures". Apple Inc. Retrieved 14 May 2013.

External links