ANGKOR WAT — It was 4 a.m., and we were speeding through the streets of Siem Reap in a tuk tuk driven by a young woman, part of the team from the woman-owned Tuk Tuk Lady Driver. 

The mission: to get to a riverside spot just in time to see the sun rise behind the ancient towers of Angkor Wat. It rained all week in Cambodia, and Travelweek was on-site for GX 2026, which culminated in a day of inspiring talks at the GX Summit.

At GX 2026 G Adventures launched ‘How to Travel Your Heart Out’, a practical guide encouraging travellers to turn small choices into positive impact for people, communities, wildlife and the planet

It’s also where G Adventures’ founder Bruce Poon Tip announced GX 2027 will be in Brazil. 

For now, though, Cambodia was the star of the show. That morning we spotted a few stars in what was left of the dark sky and, by some miracle, the clouds stayed calm, allowing slow streaks of light to peek through. And there was the reveal: the five towers of Angkor Wat reflecting in the river, awakening to the day.

It was one of five days of G Adventures and Planeterra events, showcasing how travel can serve a greater purpose, something that more people are looking for. 

“Our time is so precious and we want to maximize it,” Anita Emilio, EVP and GM, FCTG Leisure Canada, told Travelweek. “We sell a lot of G Adventures, and it’s great to experience G as a community enterprise, and be able to go back and articulate that to our advisor community.” 

Giving back to the places that you visit is often high on a traveller’s list, she added, and G Adventures’ itineraries provide the opportunity to support that wish.

The Cambodian region was one of the launch points for many of the community initiatives that Planeterra spearheads all over the world, said Poon Tip, during lunch at Spoons, a local restaurant and cooking school for young adults who may otherwise not be able to afford learning a skill, and one of the company’s partners showing how travel can lift a society. 

“The learnings came from here,” said Poon Tip, “and from that, we are able to develop guidelines for child welfare and community projects, how to set up boards for businesses, and stay involved.”

G Adventures is also very supportive of the travel advisor community, says Emilio. 

“It’s a very attractive product because the incentives are good. And they engage really well with our advisors. There’s a deep connection with the brand in Canada that makes an incredible difference.”

Making connections. What travel’s really all about.

Cambodia was the star of this year’s GX Summit (photo credit Lucas Kschischang for G Adventures)

MORE GX HAPPENINGS

At this year’s GX, attendees got the first look at How to Travel Your Heart Out, a new pocket-sized guide encouraging travellers to turn small choices into positive impact. Continuing G Adventures’ long-standing leadership in responsible travel, and building on the company’s responsible travel guidelines first launched a decade ago, the guide shifts the conversation “from what travellers shouldn’t do, to what they can do,” says the company.

Micro-community travel platform Bazaar looks to connect highly engaged communities looking to explore the world together, with common interests built around shared passions. GX got a preview of the digital platform, “based not only on where they want to go, but who they want to go with and what they care about,” says G. Bazaar is expected to launch in 2027. 

Planeterra’s new Community Positive Framework aims to create a practical, community-informed way to define, measure and improve tourism’s impact. G Adventures says the initiative will bring together community tourism enterprises, global experts and travel companies to explore what positive tourism impact actually looks like from the perspective of the communities experiencing it.

Project 300, delivered in partnership with Planeterra, now has 160 community tourism enterprises incorporated into G Adventures itineraries – on the journey towards 300 by 2030.

The G Values Fund provides low-interest microloans to help the company’s Chief Experience Officers (CEOs) create opportunities of their own. Poon Tip’s latest book, Communityship: Lessons from the Universe and the Business of Everyone, comes out Nov. 24, and all proceeds from the book will go towards G Values Fund projects.

Click here for Travelweek’s coverage of Brazil as the chosen destination for GX 2027

Lead image caption: David Green, G Adventures’ VP Customer Operations & Managing Director Canada (far right), with the Canadian delegation at GX 2026 in Cambodia (photo credit Lucas Kschischang for G Adventures; all other photos courtesy Vivian Vassos except where noted)