Bruce Poon Tip
After announcing that his company, G Adventures, has partnered with National Geographic to launch a line of accessible National Geographic-branded tours, founder Bruce Poon Tip talked to Travel Weekly's Michelle Baran about the deal.
Q: What are the biggest opportunities for G Adventures through the partnership with National Geographic?
A: There's many. First and foremost, there's obviously a wider audience. I mean, National Geographic reaches 700 million people a month through their channels. So that's obviously a much wider audience than we have access to, and that's globally.
Q: How much could the partnership potentially grow your business? Where would that growth come from?
A: The answers that I have for you are more theory than anything right now. In a year from now, I'd certainly be able to give you more statistics.
To give you an example of the power of this, yesterday we received 6,000 brochure requests for this program, between National Geographic and ourselves. That's just since the announcement.
Q: National Geographic subscribers tend to comprise an older demographic. Do you think the brand will resonate with younger travelers?
A: One of the reasons they wanted to work with us is because they have been working in the last years to be able to appeal to a younger market. They do see us a vehicle for that, for sure.
For years, the National Geographic brand has been inaccessible to a huge part of the population, because it's very expensive. Some of their around-the-world private jet trips cost over $100,000. And they want National Geographic's brand to not just be for the wealthy; they want it to speak to everyone.
Q: Did the Fox partnership with National Geographic impact this deal in any way?
A: Yeah, it certainly was something that came up, because it was right in the middle of what we were doing. The first thing we should note is that it's not a new partnership: National Geographic had been in partnership with Fox for many years on the media side. The second thing we learned about that is that the [National Geographic] Society and all their great work and everything that they stand for still remains intact.
Q: Did you have hesitations when National Geographic approached you?
A: Oh yeah, there were huge concerns initially. One of the things as a company, being an entrepreneurial-type organization, that we pride ourselves on is being very quick to market and very nimble. We've worked with massive [nongovernmental organizations] that have really slowed down our ability to innovate and be quick to market with what we do. Not only that but also being swallowed up by the enormity of that brand.
But then when our teams met and we viewed how they viewed our brand, that's what changed [our minds]. They were also very clear that they wanted our brand as part of it. It wasn't us just being an operator for them.
Q: Does this deal have a lifespan?
A: It's pretty indefinite; we are feeling out our working relationship. There's already been many hurdles to overcome to get it to this point. Just to figure out how we want to work, the concerns they have about the protection of their brand. It's an infinite contract. But there are scheduled times after three and five years to review where we are, for sure.