This month I am still coming down off the absolute high that was G Adventures’ inaugural GX event.

You may have read or heard about it from your peers who attended, but it was hands down the best travel industry celebration I have had the privilege of attending.

Not only was it a celebration of G Adventures’ anniversary, as well as that of our non-profit partner, Planeterra, it was also a celebration of community tourism and the power it has to change people’s lives.

Our Change Makers agents joined our team, suppliers, media and partners from around the globe to see firsthand what a difference they help to make when they book their clients on a G Adventures.

As the pioneers of community tourism, we have defined it as a group of people coming together from different parts of the world of travel – including our travellers – united around a joint purpose to create collective good for local communities through our work and travel.

We had the time of our lives and all helped to change people’s lives in the places we visit, as we learned from our community tourism projects on the ground what a big difference tourism has in improving their livelihoods and those in the local communities where they are based.

My favourite moment of the trip was waking up every day excited for the day ahead. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Every day was filled with happiness and joy, so many big smiles on agents’ faces and hearing them comment on what a great experience they were having. Whenever we visited a Planeterra project we were greeted by locals who enthusiastically welcomed us and we could all see the impact we are making when we send our travellers here. This of course was closely followed by the keynote speakers at the first World Community Tourism Summit that was held on September 27, World Tourism Day.

Here we heard from dynamic speakers such as Jessica Nabongo, who is the first black woman to have travelled to every country in the world. I was so inspired by her talk where she passionately described her travels to some of the world’s least-visited countries, affirming that fundamentally wherever you go, people are good.

Our panel on women’s empowerment got a standing ovation as the crowd heard what a dramatic change can occur when women are given support to grow and run their social enterprise businesses, uplifting other women with them as they grow.

We also announced our new Trees for Days initiative, a super exciting new program whereby all our travellers will have one tree planted for every day they travel. When they log in to their G Adventures account they can see their tree grove and how many trees they have there! We’re not fans of ‘offsetting’ so this new program truly aligns with our commitment to community tourism, as the local communities where the trees are growing will also benefit.

At G Adventures, we are well known for throwing a great party, so the culmination of World Tourism Day was nothing less than epic. Before there was a community, there was a village, so it made perfect sense to have the iconic Village People wrap up the event, with 400 people throwing their hands up for the Y.M.C.A.

Stay tuned for details on the next GX and how you can potentially join us via our Change Makers incentive in 2024!

#ProudtobeG

DG

G Adventures’ Managing Director David Green’s monthly column, ‘G in 3’ is a 3-minute read running exclusively in Travelweek Daily all through 2023