TORONTO — This year’s GX Community Tourism Summit will take place in India.

G Adventures’ Managing Director David Green first announced the news in his ‘G in 3’ column, running exclusively in Travelweek in 2024.

G Adventures and its non-profit partner, Planeterra, sent out the update for wide release this morning.

The 2023 Community Tourism Summit, in Cusco, Peru, was hugely successful for G Adventures, as agents, suppliers, media and travellers gathered from around the globe to experience firsthand what a monumental impact community tourism can have on a destination, on local people, and on travellers themselves.

This year’s event, taking place Sept. 24 – 29, will once again incorporate the Change Makers agent event, which brings agents of change from around the world together, with the trip culminating in an all-day World Community Tourism celebration on World Tourism Day, Sept. 27.

Change Makers is live now and runs until May 31. The campaign incentivizes agents to focus on changing people’s lives through travel by booking G Adventures trips. Agents who successfully earn a place at Change Makers will see firsthand how their work directly impacts local communities in the places they send their travellers to, through the lens of a six-day trip to India.

Village People perform at the 2023 GX Summit

“THERE WAS NO QUESTION WE HAD TO REPEAT THIS EXPERIENCE”

Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of both G Adventures and Planeterra, says India was an obvious choice given the experience the GX Summit delivers to its attendees.

“Last year we hosted our first GX Summit in Peru, and I was mind blown by the feedback we received following the event,” said Poon Tip. “There was no question we had to repeat this experience. The feedback from attendees was so encouraging, people came back energized about the power of community tourism to make a real difference to people in the places we visit.”

He added: “India is an electrifying location, and one that really needs tourism’s support. It’s not fully bounced back since the pandemic, so I’m excited to host our guests and to be able to encourage more people to travel to India the right way at the same time. There’s no better feeling for me than seeing all our communities come together over one shared experience. We learn a lot, but we also have a lot of fun.”

The GX Summit will take agents on a six-day exploration of sights, sounds and community tourism highlights across Delhi, Jaipur and Agra and more, and will include the World Community Tourism Day Summit on Sept. 27.

Agents can visit: https://sherpa.gadventures.com/change-makers/ and log into Sherpa for more information on how to attend, or speak to their regional global purpose specialist for more information. More details will be revealed in the coming months. For more information on GX visit: https://gx.gadventures.com/.