G
Adventures, in collaboration with its non-profit arm, Planeterra, hosted
its second annual GX World Community Tourism Summit on September 27, 2024, in
Jaipur, India,
coinciding with global World
Tourism Day celebrations. The event brought together nearly 500 members of
the travel industry, including advisors, suppliers, media, partners and travelers
hailing from all around the world.
The day was comprised
by a lineup of uniquely compelling speaker and panel sessions, which overall emphasized
the potentially life-altering effects of community-based tourism and its
ability to have a lasting positive impact. Presentations and discussions
centered on current obstacles and opportunities, including the ways in which
community-focused tourism allows Indian women to gain economic independence and
the outsized impact of the climate crisis on vulnerable communities.
Backed by
Incredible India as the headline sponsor, the event was an uplifting
celebration of the power of travel, which highlighted the transformative impact
of community tourism and its potential to drive meaningful change.
Jamie Sweeting,
President of Planeterra, highlighted the extraordinary headway that’s been made
since the first GX summit, which took place in Peru in 2023. At that time, he
had introduced Project 300 and Trees for Days, a tree-planting program operated
in partnership with G Adventures.
“Project 300 has a bold target to uplift 300
communities through travel by the year 2030. I’m delighted to report that in
the past year, 13 new community tourism enterprises have been integrated into G
Adventures trips, including four in India,” Sweeting announced. “This means
that today, 130 community projects are currently benefiting from the power of
tourism.
“New partners
include Pink City Rickshaw in Jaipur which offers women from
low-income households sustainable livelihoods as they proudly drive designer
e-rickshaws and Sheroes Hangout in Agra—a café that offers
acid attack survivors opportunities for personal growth and recovery.”
In addition,
Sweeting shared that Planeterra’s Trees for Days initiative, which plants a
tree for each day a traveler spends on a G Adventures itinerary, will have
resulted in the growth of more than three million trees by the end of 2024.
“Since its launch
12 months ago, we’ve nurtured 18 community tree-growing projects in 14
countries, benefiting over 40,000 community members. 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.”
A highlight of the
summit was the conversation between Bruce Poon Tip, founder of G Adventures and
Planeterra, and Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler. The two travel pioneers
discussed the evolution of responsible tourism and how community-focused travel
can shape the future of the industry.
Planeterra not
only celebrated the successes of past projects, but also revealed a new
five-year partnership with G Travel Community (GTC) member, G Touring, which
will rely upon a donation and match financing model to fund future initiatives.
Jordan was also
announced as the host country for the next GX Summit, which will take place in
September 2025. Next year will also mark G Adventures’ 35th anniversary, so it’s
safe to assume the event will be even grander in scale and substance.
Poon Tip
summarized the spirit of the day by calling the summit a celebration of
tourism’s remarkable ability to change lives and transform communities
worldwide. “We’ve had this dream at G Adventures, since we first started, that
travelers can change the world just by going on holiday. And that’s what GX is
all about,” he said.
The 2024 GX Summit’s
full lineup of speakers:
- Aayusha Prasain - Community Homestay
Network
- Aranya Johar - Poet
- Brian Young - G Adventures
- Bruce Poon Tip - G Adventures
- Elizabeth Becker - Author, "Overbooked"
- Ernest White II - Fly Brother
- Jaideep Bansal - Global Himalayan
Expeditions
- Jamie Sweeting - Planeterra
- Meenu Vadera - Azad Foundation
- Michelle Degenhardt - Flight Centre
- Paras Loomba - Global Himalayan
Expeditions
- Shivya Nath - The Shooting Star
- Tabitha Lipkin - TV presenter,
journalist and creator
- Tanya Alag - Salaam Baalak Trust
- Tony Wheeler - Lonely Planet
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