SIEM REAP — True to tradition, G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip waited until the final moments of the GX Summit in Cambodia to grandly announce the destination for the next event. And Brazil emerged victorious.

“Cambodia didn’t bid – we went to them – but Brazil did,” Bruce Poon Tip explained during an interview at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, in Siem Reap. “We invited them to join the process, and they were super excited about it. Until a week, even four days before GX, the decision wasn’t fully finalized.” 

Until the announcement was made live on stage at the Sokha Convention Center, the other bidders hadn’t even been notified, given how down-to-the-wire the choice was.

“Four days before we arrived here, Brazil sent a contract to up their bid and secure the event. Either way, we wanted Brazil. Did you see the crowd’s reaction when we announced it? It was absolute madness!”

The 2026 GX edition was originally scheduled for Morocco before being shifted to Cambodia last February, largely due to Middle Eastern tensions that would have complicated logistics. 

“When we pivoted in February, it upset a lot of people, directed at me or the company. But I’m here to make difficult decisions, and it was the right one,” said Poon Tip.

Throughout GX 2026 in Cambodia, Poon Tip frequently emphasized how much the country needed an event like GX to revitalize its struggling tourism industry and foster community tourism – a core pillar for G Adventures. 

In Brazil, however, the context promises to be slightly different.

“They want us to bring travellers to regions of Brazil where we don’t necessarily have a footprint yet, which presents a brand-new challenge. And this time, we’re actually going to build projects before we even get there, rather than just utilizing existing ones. That’s the next step for GX: proving our capacity-building capabilities,” he said.

“We want to go in, work with local authorities, and with Brazil, we might push things a step further than usual to showcase another side of GX’s impact: capacity building. It’s almost like the Olympics, where you build facilities to host the games and then leave them behind when you go. Similarly, we can build community development projects, show them how it’s done, leave them in their hands, and then bring passengers back.”

Click here for Travelweek’s full coverage of GX 2026 in Cambodia, including new initiatives like the ‘How to Travel Your Heart Out’ pocket guide, micro-community travel platform Bazaar coming in spring 2027 and more.

Lead image caption: G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip (photo credit Lucas Kschischang for G Adventures)