Filling in the Gap for Today's Traveler
Written by Caroline
When Bruce Poon Tip was a young boy he asked his elementary teacher where Tibet was. She told him such a place did not exist. Young Tip was confused. He had read about this place called Tibet, so it had to be somewhere, right?
To get to the bottom of whether or not this mysterious land was real, he looked it up in the encyclopedia, the number one source for information about the world back then. And indeed, there it was, Tibet—a country in northern Asia known for its mountains and rolling hills.
Tips curiosity about the world never faded. Now, at 40 years old, he manages a company that brings travelers to Tibet, among other destinations less traveled by outsiders.
Hike over one of the most active volcanoes in the world, whale watch in Antarctica, retract the steps of the ancient Inca civilization by hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu or experience what life is really like in the Peruvian by assisting at a home for street children.
Tip’s company, GAP Adventures, which he founded more than two decades ago, makes these experiences that were once reserved for daydreamers, a reality. You could say GAP Adventures travelers are unique, compared to the typical tourist. Those that choose GAP Adventures are looking for something that fits their personal values, not just their wallets. Tip’s customers are part of today’s social and environmentally conscious society, or people who just want something different.
Tip says GAP Adventures was founded for those who wanted grassroots travel but didn’t necessarily have the time to backpack for weeks. The name GAP Adventures came from Tip’s idea of the gap in the current tourism market at the time. There was something missing in between the mainstream resorts and backpacking or hostelling. Resorts offered short, organized, schedules of activities with services and staff but could only scratch the surface when it came to cultural education and cultural emersion. Backpacking, on the other hand, offered flexibility and opportunity to travelers to amerce themselves into local culture, but required longer stays and self-reliance.
Those who travel with GAP Adventures travel in groups with local tour guides and stay in local places, versus standard resorts. The travel guides often live at the destinations and wait for the travelers to come to them. “It’s like traveling with or visiting friends,” said Tip, who now is able to look back at how far the company has come in the travel industry.
Tip started Gap in 1990 during the first wave of the sustainability movement. What we know today as “eco tourism” hadn’t begun yet, and the company’s mission was setting the tone for what would become a multi-million dollar industry.
“Back then, banks and investors were skeptical,” remembers Tip. “The Idea of traveling on local transportation was not popular or even an option.” He says there was no dedicated category for what his company did and the government didn’t encourage him to exist. Because of the way his company operated, the money generated from his way of tourism didn’t go into the hands of the government but back into the communities they visited. Therefore, the government at the time didn’t identify his form of ecotourism as an available form of tourism for the masses.
During the mad dash in the 90’s to try to define what ecotourism really was, the word became kind of academic as people studied and analyzed what its true meaning could be, said Tip. “There were a lot of different opinions on what the meaning was and we kind of got lumped into this.”
The environmental movement of the 90’s consisted of rainforest concerns and conservation at home, but then the same people that preached conservation didn’t think twice about going on cruses. “That felt weird to have that inconsistency, but people eventually came around,” said Tip. Today, people want all the experiences but are more conscious about what impact their vacation may make on the environment.
“The world has changed in my favor in the last 15 years,” said Tip. Today, GAP Adventures is a model for those just hopping on the bandwagon.
GAP has grown from one man to 580 employees worldwide and offers over 1,000 trips to over 100 countries.
Like many entrepreneur success stories, Tip started his company with only is credit card. He was 22 years old, living in Toronto, Canada. He says even in his darkest days he never thought about giving up. He always believed something like GAP could become a reality.
Because of the success of his work, Tip has become a know name among eco groups, meeting with various political leaders such as Al Gore and others from around the world to talk about the future of sustainable tourism.
Tip doesn’t claim he was the first to think of such a concept for travel but he was able to innovate and evolve with the changing travel preferences before they became trends.
Five years ago Tip started Planeterra, GAP’s nonprofit arm. Its goal is to give back to the places GAP has brought tourists to and make a difference in those local communities. In addition to choosing travel packages offered by the company, travelers have the option of traveling with the nonprofit and work on various projects that introduce them to local communities.
Planeterra supports more than 20 projects worldwide. Projects such as developing a school in South Africa for children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, saving the endangered Titi Monkeys by erecting life saving bridges over major roads in Costa Rica and providing educational opportunities to children in a coffee growing community of Guatemala are all part of the company’s goals towards sustainability.
Tip says social responsibility has always been his definition of sustainability. And though today the word tends to lean towards climate change, GAP has come full circle. From local communities with generations of culture to pass on to our world’s forests and endangered animals, GAP has managed to stick to its original intentions and define responsible travel for itself.
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