They’re described as “the grandest adventures on Earth” …and Australia is about to join the party.
Award-winning entrepreneur Bruce Poon Tip is taking his G Adventures brand to new heights with The Geluxe Collection.
Traveltalk was invited to join Poon Tip in Sydney last night as he unveiled the second set of destinations to join the collection. These include Tanzania, Kenya, Turkey, Ireland and India, and join others announced late last year.
“Geluxe has been the fastest product we’ve ever launched,” Poon Tip said, revealing that Australia was now the fastest growing market for the company.
The new line of 45 premium trips in 26 countries offer one-of-kind accommodation, elevated dining and active experiences but with community and cultural immersion at their core.
The first Geluxe tours begin in May with the second departures rolling out in October. Australia and New Zealand experiences are scheduled for 2025 but details of where, when and what that will be remain a work in progress.
Poon Tip revealed that the new touring range was born out of COVID research and that it took five years to get the program together.
“We saw that there was a market for an active, premium accommodation and upgraded food kind of experience,” he said.
“There was basically a hole in the market because it’s a market that wasn’t there before. We’re pretty excited about it.
“There are a lot of touring companies that offer high end, premium product. There’s plenty of that. And there’s a lot of other businesses that have quite a heavy active component to their tours.
“We’ve found a sweet spot that no one else is touching, using that premium active space.”
Research has revealed that the average age for Geluxe guests is 53 with 73% of the traveller’s female.
“The active component is the important part of Geluxe. People want to be active, they want to do walks, hikes, rafting or kayaking when they are over 50, but they don’t want to travel with 25-year-olds if they want to take an active trip.
“And they want comfort. They want to have a comfortable place to sleep at night and they want great food.
“For us, food is a very important part of being connected to the destination. We take food very seriously because it is a big part of cultural immersion and cultural experience.
“People think that you have to sacrifice experience for luxury. We’re trying to prove that you can have comfort and a premium experience without sacrificing community.
“We’re not saying it’s five-star hotels: we’re not going to sacrifice experience for comfort but we’re going to create the best comfort we can.
We’ve definitely hit on something that didn’t exist before.”
www.gadventures.com/geluxe
