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May 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Special report

cause + action winner - G.A.P Adventures
Travelling globally, thinking locally

by Carey Toane
page 22

Toronto-based G.A.P Adventures has become one of the world's largest adventure travel companies, offering group adventures with a focus on sustainable travel to over 60,000 passengers a year. As a way for the company and its travellers to give back to the people and places visited on its tours, G.A.P developed its own non-profit organization, Planeterra.

Inspiration

G.A.P Adventures' commitment to sustainable travel is woven throughout all aspects of the company - from its corporate initiatives to the way tours are run. By using small-scale lodging and local transportation, supporting locally owned businesses and incorporating community-based ecotourism projects, G.A.P is environmentally, socially and culturally responsible.

Planeterra was established to take that commitment further. It supports 19 community projects worldwide, from the Salesiano Street Children Project in Ecuador to BearHealth in Svalbard on the Arctic Ocean. The projects - the number of which increases each year - focus on health, education, community development, environmental conservation and employment skills training.

G.A.P pays all administration fees, which means that 100% of each donation goes directly to Planeterra programs. The Dollar-A-Day program gives travellers the option to donate for the duration of their tour, and G.A.P matches all individual donations.

G.A.P customers can also donate their time while on holiday. Planeterra volunteer trips give travellers a chance to experience cultural immersion and help improve the living conditions of local people. G.A.P ran eight new volunteer trips in 2007 and expanded to 15 in 2008, including delivering wheelchairs to land mine victims in Cambodia, assisting in a medical clinic in Kenya and working with a sea turtle conservation project in Costa Rica.

G.A.P also promotes partnerships by employing local guides, suppliers and operators. This provides economic benefits and leadership opportunities for local people, supports their initiatives and encourages the preservation of natural and cultural heritage.

New for 2008 is the Planet Positive Project, which focuses on environmental sustainability. G.A.P aims to plant one million trees in the next 18 months to offset emissions, including one tree per passenger, to support regrowth projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The operator's existing carbon offset program has been expanded to include the footprint of tours as well as flights.

At home, the head office and five concept stores are powered by 100% green energy. The company also provides a monthly subsidy for staff members who use public transportation.

Execution and Marketing Efforts

G.A.P Adventures' marketing strategy is to raise awareness and educate consumers, customers and agents about sustainable tourism and its initiatives.

The Internet is the primary medium for providing travellers with guidelines on how to minimize their impact on the environment, wildlife and marine ecosystems. Gapadventures.com generates 200,000 unique visitors and two million page views per month. The Watering Hole travellers forum has a sustainable travel category for passengers to ask questions and share tips, and over 110,000 subscribers get a monthly e-newsletter highlighting various sustainable travel initiatives.

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