Bruce Poon Tip, Founder, Gap Adventures

In 1990, 23-year-old Bruce Poon Tip founded Gap Adventures with two credit cards and a burning desire to create an authentic, sustainable travel experience available to all. While his business acumen powered the growth of a visionary company, his path to success faced significant hurdles along the way.

A gold medal-winner in the prestigious Junior Achievement youth business program at age 14, Bruce demonstrated an early penchant for entrepreneurship. The same could not be said of his desire to work for others. At 16, Bruce was fired from a job at Denny’s Restaurants after just two weeks, while fast food giant McDonald’s decided his maverick style didn’t gel with its own work culture, promptly dismissing him before his training was complete.

It wasn’t until he donned a backpack and set out to explore the world that he found his visionary stride. According to his business plan, the budding entrepreneur would organize small group adventure tours to off-the-beaten-path destinations. While he felt the idea was a sure winner, bank managers were less than enthused.

Unfunded—save for his maxed-out credit cards—but unfazed, Bruce put his plan in motion, offering adventure-craving travellers an alternative to the resorts, cruises and motor coach tours to which they were accustomed. Twenty years later, his belief in the core values that powered the company in those early days are as strong as ever.

Chief among those core values is Bruce’s passion for changing people’s lives through travel by providing unforgettable adventures and industry-leading service with benefits such as 24/7 customer service, lifetime trip deposits and a policy not to punish solo travellers with single supplements.

Consistent with Bruce’s commitment to changing people’s lives were his efforts on the sustainability front, deciding to put people, places and ecosystems ahead of profits. He founded the non-profit Planeterra Foundation in 2003 to develop and support extensive community-development and conservation initiatives around the world. In recognition of this dedication to ethical business practices and sustainable tourism, Gap Adventures was awarded the 2009 World Savers Award by Condé Nast Traveler magazine, the 2009 Travel and Leisure Global Vision Leadership Award for voluntourism and the 2009 Responsible Travel and Tourism Leadership Award.

Not surprisingly, remarkable business success and a visionary value system have led to widespread industry recognition. Bruce has been twice honoured as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has been recognized as Travel Personality of the Year by the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies. He has also been presented with the Global Traders Leadership Award for excellence in exporting and international business.

A top draw on the international speaking circuit, Bruce’s numerous engagements have included talks on sustainability and tourism at the 2010 TED Whistler, TED Bangkok and TEDx Toronto events, and an invitation from the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders’ Forum to present at the inaugural United Nations World Tourism Organization Seminar on Ethics in Tourism. He has also presented at the UNWTO Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Switzerland, the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference in the USA and addressed the UN World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development. At the request of the World Bank and UNESCO, Bruce was asked to lecture in China on Sustainable Development and has also presented at the United Nations launch of The Year of Eco Tourism in New York City.