BRUCE Poon Tip, founder of Gap Adventures, the world’s largest adventure travel company, will be a key note speaker at the inaugural World Green Tourism Abu Dhabi conference.
Poon Tip, an award-winning sustainability pioneer, founded Gap Adventures as a 23-year-old in 1990 with two credit cards. His driving force was a desire to create a sustainable travel experience that strived to minimise its environmental impact, to respect local people and cultures, offer economic benefit to local businesses and communities and provide a memorable experience for travellers while protecting destinations for future generations.
With more than 850 employees, Gap Adventures now offers more than 1,000 small group experiences, safaris and expeditions on all seven continents, to more than 100,000 travellers a year.
Now the innovative leader, who in 2003 launched the non-profit Planeterra Foundation to make a positive difference to people’s lives, is bringing his cause to Abu Dhabi – a destination which keeps sustainability at the core of its development.
“I launched Gap Adventures with the belief that other travellers would share my desire to experience authentic adventures in a responsible and sustainable manner and I hope that by learning about our journey and success at the Abu Dhabi congress, other industry leaders will also recognise why putting in place measures to make tourism more environmentally and culturally aware can also create growth opportunities,” said Poon Tip.
Another powerful speaker is Gopinath Parayil, the 36-year-old founder and chief executive of India’s leading responsible travel company The Blue Yonder. Award-winning Parayil, who set his company up in Bangalore in 2004 to create specialised tours to Northern Kerala’s neglected Bharatapuzha River region, will present his experience as a case study in how low-impact environmental tours can deliver social and economic benefits to local communities.
The Blue Yonder’s tours have created work for locals with residents now working as tour guides, folk musicians, ritualistic healers, artisans, interpreters and boatmen. The tours have also raised much needed funds for the Nila Foundation which works to revive and regenerate the dying river. The Blue Yonder has since gone on to launch responsible cultural and heritage tours to Karnataka, Sikkim, Spiti Valley, Sunderbans and Rajasthan.
“The pioneering spirit these two speakers represent will help stamp the event with a forward-thinking approach to green tourism which we want the event to evoke,” said Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), which is supporting the event.
Other speakers include: Arnfinn Oines, social and environmental conscience officer, Six Senses Resorts & Spas and Faith Taylor, VP for sustainability and innovation, for Wyndham World, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies and ranked by Fortune magazine amongst the world’s ‘Most Admired Companies’.