G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip has hailed the operator’s second ‘GX’ World Community Tourism Summit as “transformational for everyone involved”.
Close to 500 members of the travel industry gathered in Jaipur, India, to take part in the event on September 27, recognised as World Tourism Day.
Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler was among the line-up of speakers at the summit, which was co-hosted by the operator’s not-for-profit arm Planeterra.
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Poon Tip said: “Bringing all of our communities together in India to showcase how the right kind of tourism can positively impact lives on a daily basis has been a huge privilege for me.”
Through the speakers and panel sessions, topics covered included how community tourism is empowering women in India to gain economic independence and how the climate crisis is disproportionately affecting in-need communities globally.
Planeterra president Jamie Sweeting gave an update on the progress made since the first GX summit in Peru last year, when he unveiled the launch of ‘Project 300’ and the ‘Trees for Days’ initiative.
He said 13 new community tourism enterprises had been integrated into G Adventures trips in the past year, taking the total number of projects to 130 and closer to the target figure.
He added that more than three million trees would be growing by the end of 2024 as part of the Trees for Days initiative which sees a tree planted for each day a traveller is on a G Adventures trip.
“Since its launch 12 months ago, we’ve nurtured 18 community tree-growing projects in 14 countries, benefitting over 40,000 community members,” said Sweeting.
“We’ve learned that if you plant the right kind of tree with the right kind of people in the right kind of place, it can be absolutely extraordinary.”
Toasting the success of the Jaipur summit and the days leading up to it, Poon Tip said: “Our guests have had the opportunity to visit remarkable projects and meet remarkable people during their time here. The experience has been transformational for everyone involved.”
Other speakers included Overbooked author Elizabeth Becker and Climate Conscious Travel founder Shivya Nath.
It was announced that next year’s summit would take place in Jordan in September 2025, with the activities including a celebration of G Adventures’ 35th anniversary.
The gathering would be “bigger and better than ever”, the operator said.