A New Era for High-end Travel: National Geographic Signature with G Adventures

We're actually, you know, always launching in new destinations and we start seeing trends evolve much earlier than if all we did was premium product. We see, like, what's up and coming. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Travel Trends podcast. This is your host Dan Christian and today we have a very special Spotlight episode for you and it's particularly special and meaningful for me given that I used to work at G adventures and I have mentioned G a number of times on this podcast over the last few years and today I have the honor and the privilege to interview one of the senior executives from G adventures about the launch of National Geographic's signature collection. Now if you know anything about this company, you'll understand why it matters because G adventures isn't just a brand I admire from afar, it's a team, a culture and a philosophy of travel that I have a deep personal affinity for. I've seen firsthand how seriously they take community tourism, purpose driven travel and using travel as a force for good. So when I heard about the launch of this new product line, I knew it was something that we had to bring to life on our podcast and this year more than ever we are talking about transformational travel, travel that goes beyond comfort and luxury and actually changes the way we see the world and our place in it. But for more than two decades, G adventures has been a leader in exactly that space. Now they're entering a bold new era with the launch of National Geographic's signature, a collection that redefines what high end travel can look like in 2026 and beyond. Now in today's episode, I'm sitting down with Eve Marso, the vice president of product at G adventures to unpack why this moment matters, not just for G adventures and National Geographic, but for the future of luxury travel itself. This new signature collection brings together two powerhouses that have been collaborating for over a decade. On one side, you have National Geographic's legacy of exploration, science, storytelling and education and on the other, G adventures with leadership in community tourism and immersive small group travel. The result is something that goes far beyond traditional luxury. These are experiences built around rare access, world leading experts, deep cultural immersion and a clear sense of purpose. The collection launches with 22 itineraries across 28 destinations from Peru where G adventures had their start to southern Africa, to Japan, Morocco, Central Asia, Vietnam and even Palau, a brand new destination for G adventures. Trips range from 7 to 19 days and are designed for culturally curious travelers who want to learn, engage and give back without compromising on comfort or service. Throughout our conversation, even I dig into some of the big questions shaping the industry right now. What gaps exist in traditional luxury travel that today's travelers are no longer willing to accept and how do you elevate accommodations and service while staying true to community tourism and local impact. We also explore what this experience actually looks like on the ground. From signature moments like restricted access conservation sites in Cambodia, private expert led experiences in Morocco's ancient Medinas and before hours access to iconic landmarks. The journey is guided by national geographic expedition leaders and local experts ranging from biologists and historians to photographers, archaeologists and conservationists. Most importantly, we talk about how these trips are designed to create value, not extracted. Every booking supports the nonprofit National Geographic Society, while community led experiences from women's weaving cooperatives in Peru to women led agricultural initiatives in Egypt ensure travelers connect meaningfully with the people and places they visit. This is a luxury travel reimagine, not just about where you stay or how exclusive the experience feels, but about what you learn, who you meet and the impact you leave behind. We also touch on what this launch means for travel advisors and so many of you listen to our podcast and I can't thank you enough for supporting us last few years and you finally get to hear from one of the most incredible brands in the world and you will hear today how this particular product line opens the door to new types of affluent, purpose driven clients and how the National Geographic signature style could influence the broader luxury travel landscape over the next five to ten years. You're going to be able to hear clips and highlights from these conversations on all our social channels, which you can find on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube at Travel Trends Podcast. And if this episode inspires you, I encourage you to head to gadventures.com to explore the full National Geographic Signature Collection and see how you or your clients can experience these journeys firsthand. With that, let's dive in. This is my conversation with Eve Marso, VP of product at gadventures. Welcome Eve. Great to have you on the Travel Trends podcast. Thanks for having me, Dan. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance and share with the audience. For sure. I know we just missed each other. When I was at G, you joined shortly afterwards. You're also Canadian, but you've been living in the US for many years. I know you're based in Boston, is that right? I am, yes, and I moved to the US 30 some years ago, originally from Montreal. All right. So you got some difficulty there with sports teams, you support, but us in Toronto, including Bruce and myself. Obviously, we've got our raptors. We've got our Blue Jays. We've got our Leafs. And you've got, I'm sure you have to have mixed affiliations between Montreal and Boston. Yeah. And the only team in Boston that I can't support is the Bruins. I am a Habs guy. I grew up with the Habs. They're in my blood. Absolutely. Yes. Rocket Rashard and the sweater. I mean, that's Kent. Yeah. That is an institution. But Gila Flur. Oh, of course. Yes. I should have gone there. But yes, of course, we've got that connection with Hockey and Canada. But one of the things that you've been in the US market for so long and today, obviously, we're going to be talking about the relationship with National Geographic. And you are the VP of product and people, obviously, heard from the introduction there. And given my background to G, this is the first time that we've actually had someone from G adventures on the podcast after nearly two to an half years. I know Bruce Poon-Tip is going to be on the podcast very shortly as well because he has his new book coming out. So I'm thrilled to reconnect with a lot of my friends and colleagues at G adventures. And I still, many of our listeners have heard over the course of the last six seasons. I guess six going into seven seasons. My affinity for G adventures and all of the experience that I gain there, working with Bruce and the team. And so the company has gone from strength to strength over that time. And the growth that you have seen in the last decade is just extraordinary. So I'm so keen to have this conversation with you and to bring G adventures to life for all of our listeners. But tell us, Eve, a little bit about your background in the travel industry before we get into G. Did you get into travel? What brought you to Boston? And what was your journey up into the industry? Yeah. Well, I mean, I actually moved to the U.S. for grad school. I went to grad school in Massachusetts, not actually in Boston, in Western Massachusetts, at UMass Amherst, and was not studying travel and tourism. I was actually studying education and started as a teacher. And I got into travel through teaching. So I taught in a small rural school district, I taught French, and I realized that most of my students had never been outside of the county they lived in. And to get them excited about learning French, I realized I got to get them excited about traveling. So I started doing an exchange program with a colleague in France and doing travel back and forth and then realized, wow, I like this traveling thing. Like this is fun. And one day, this is just how things happen. One day in the local newspaper, there was an ad looking for someone who was fluent in French, had a background in education and was interested in working in travel. So I applied. And this is when you actually got job postings in the newspaper, not through online. And they called me immediately and I ended up joining this company that did educational travel for older Americans. And I became the person designing these educational tours in France. And I was 35 years ago. And I haven't taken the foot off the gas since that's amazing. Your first day, well, it makes sense, of course, given you're an educator that you would then be able to we obviously you'd have an interest in foreign travel and you're also an interest in being able to encourage people to learn and experience and discover these destinations. So obviously that is many ways a perfect background for being the VP of product and the journey you've gone on. But tell us when you got into the travel space, I know you were at road scholar for a decade or more. Tell us a little bit about that role in particular, because obviously you went through a lot of growth, I'm assuming there is the director of program development. So tell us a little bit more about what then ultimately led you to G adventures and the role that you've been doing now for almost 12 years. Yeah, so yes, 15 plus years at road scholar. Like I said, I started as a product manager for Europe, most specifically France. And it was designing educational tours, and I had two key topics, food and wine in World War II. No, quite interesting. And throughout the years I went from doing France to doing other parts of Europe, expanded into Asia, was promoted and started looking at how we open other destinations, new destinations and very quickly my expertise at road scholar developed into new product development, new destination opening and really kind of like how do you innovate in the educational travel space. How I ended up at G is a great story because G was actually one of our suppliers. So we did, we would sometimes charter or send groups on the expedition, the G expedition ship to Antarctica. We did some work with the expedition ship along the coast of Africa on some repositioning cruises. And so I knew G, I worked closely with Bruce's team in Toronto. And you know, one day my contact at G reached out and said Bruce is in Boston and I think it might be worth you meeting with him. So I had my first meeting with Bruce. And within days I was sold, the G was the right place and it was truly the time I spent in Toronto meeting with the executive team at G, they really convinced me it was the right place for me. So the whole approach around community tourism, around changing how people travel was really something that resonated with me. It was what I wanted to do at road school, it's what I did. It's really discovering places through the people and not just the sites and you know, the opportunity to come over to G and do that on a much wider scale, bigger scale was the thing that ticked and said I'm gone. Yeah, well it's interesting to get rid of that feeling when I'm horse met with Bruce when I moved back from Australia, I was working at Lonely Planet and of course, Bruce is very much a visionary leader and I still remember when we were working together walking past a poster of Jake Burton at the airport together and they had just implemented SAP and he was like, when do you think we need SAP and I said, well, you know, they're nearly a billion dollar company is like, well, we're going to be a billion dollar company. And you know, at that point, we were about 50 or 60 and sure enough, you guys are well on that journey now. So that's gives like as one example and he's always considered himself very much a director of talent of being able to find the best people and bring them into the organization and he's certainly done that. It's been a talent factory over the years and it's certainly been I'm proud to be an alumni of G adventures not only to have so many amazing colleagues still there that are doing exceptionally well, but also the people that move on at some point with their careers and tend to go on to great things also, which is a testament to the type of people that come in the organization. So let's talk about your role and talk about G adventures and then I want to get into of course what we're going to focus on is the National Geographic Signature Collection which just launched in January of 2026. But I want to also highlight the National Geographic relationship to start. But for any of our listeners, Eve that are not familiar with G adventures, would you mind just giving a bit of an overview of the company, the small group, the type of travel that G adventures offers, which is what sold me on joining and what obviously brought you in and it's why so many people love traveling with G. Yeah, I mean, listen, we have a lot of different travel product that's available and we've built a brand that's really unique in the world. But at the core, G is about community tourism. It's about the concept that when you travel, you can have a positive impact on the places you're visiting, on the destinations you're going to. The travel is a force for good and done right, travel has a positive impact. They know we hear a lot about overtourism, we hear a lot about companies that kind of keep pushing people to the same destination or that you hear like sometimes people talk about cruise lines, taking resources out of countries instead of bringing resources into countries through traveler dollars. We are a company that's about supporting the locals and local businesses. We launched prior to COVID, we launched what we call the Ripple Score, which was meant to measure the impact that travelers dollars had on communities and how much stayed local. We have our Planetera projects, our GeForGood projects, that are meant to kind of give back and have kind of impactful experiences on tour that are more than just giving back to a project. It's about engaging with the project, so the whole concept of connecting to the places and creating a community as you travel is what's unique for sure. That Planetera connection couldn't be more important, I don't know, it was still early days when I was there with Planetera being, it was already in place, however, it was still continuing to scale and it's important, but again, that's way ahead of its time when you look at the travel industry today. In terms of national geographic, obviously, G-Adventures is a globally-renowned, G-Adventures is a globally-renowned brand and they have been able to introduce some significant partnerships, but I don't think there is anyone that stands out as much as National Geographic. I mean, National Geographic has a storied history, everyone's familiar with their very identifiable logo with the yellow frame and the magazine, the history, and what's really interesting to me, and this is obviously your expertise, but the people who read National Geographic and the people that are connected to the brand, they are travelers. They are people that have the interest in travel, they have passports, and they have the means to be able to travel, and so it is a perfect fit, of course, for National Geographic and G-Adventures to partner together, but tell us a little bit about that backstory and how that came to be, because I know what we're going to be talking about today is how you're taking it to the next level with this signature collection, but yeah, tell us about the origin of the National Geographic and G-Adventures relationship. So we've been working with National Geographic for close to 12 years now, actually. I know we talk a lot about 10 years, but actually started way before. It was one of my first meetings when I joined G was to meet with some of the senior people at National Geographic to have a conversation about how we could work together, and they came to us. They were looking at, you know, how could they enter a slightly lower price point in the market, and who was the best partner to do that with, and they identified G, they came to us, and it was like an immediate natural fit, as you said. It makes perfect sense for National Geographic who is all about exploring, storytelling, digging deeper into the culture and places of the world. That's what we do with G, that's what we do with our travelers. So it was a natural fit, and, you know, over 12 years, we've grown our partnership from, you know, a couple thousand travelers to over 12, 13,000 travelers this year, if not more with our journeys. We went, we expanded from just National Geographic journeys to National Geographic family journeys, so we brought in family travel. And so when National Geographic was looking for a partner to handle the signature product line, it made sense that they came to us. They went to others as well. But what we brought was a new vision for the, quote unquote, luxury travel space. It's something that really Bruce drove, like his vision was spot on with what we proposed for signature. And what I find so fascinating, both about the G adventures history and National Geographic, of course, National Geographic is 135 years old, but the G adventures story very much tied to Bruce Poon tip himself and creating these small group adventure tours, which I still remember when we were doing one of our executive off-sites, and Bruce had this concept, and he took some of the executive team away, and we did this a few times, and it was always very inspiring. And one of the things he would challenge us on is like the pain points in the business and looking at other industries of where Zappos or Disney and, you know, I had shared with him the book Blue Ocean Strategy. We'd gone to Vegas to look at Cirque du Soleil and understand how, you know, their business model, this idea of, you know, essentially being the business that you can keep replicating yourself. We don't have any natural competition. And one of the things that we were working on then was our core values, and what became incredibly clear to all of us in those meetings and discussions was the biggest reason that people chose to travel with G adventures is that they were life transforming adventures. And what I find fascinating about that as we have this conversation in 2026 is that, you know, this is more than, you know, 15 years ago now, and the company was already on that trajectory. That was core to the DNA of the business. That's why people travel in small groups, that's why people want to connect with locals and they want to be immersed in the culture and they don't want to travel on big coaches. They want to take local transport and the types of people that take these trips are, you know, teachers, nurses coming back to your background. But the one last thing I just wanted to say on this is that 2026 is very much the year of transformative travel. You know, you've got people like Joe Pine who coined the term the experience economy way back in 1999. He's one of the inspirations of me to get into this industry. And I've had him on the podcast twice and he's coming back again. He's such an inspiring and also, you know, he is very much kind of built the framework for this concept of the experience economy. And now his big focus in his book is the transformation economy, which as I highlight to him of my conversations, well, you just look at a company like G adventures, they're already doing this. Exactly like the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, the pinnacle of what people are looking for in a trip to come back changed and feel different. And to go on their heroes journey, it's like, this is the brand experience that I chose to embark on from lonely planet to to G adventures. So interesting that story because I think that's where G adventures working with partners, understanding that DNA. So National Geographic comes to you and I guess this is, this is the truly the final part and I'll pass it back to you, but I just hope our listeners find this fascinating is because adventure travel was initially kind of more intended to be not necessarily budget, but certainly there was camping and there was like it was, it was designed to be more economical like that was. And so this perception of adventure travel, being active or even being kind of a rougher style of travel, it didn't necessarily appeal to people who were looking for comfort and the older clientele and the significant change with the National Geographic partnership and what we're talking about today is luxury. And I know G has moved into comfort, they've moved into the idea of G-Lux and you know, and worked with travel agencies to really highlight the luxury portfolio. And this is the next step in that one. So tell us a little bit about how when you got involved then to start creating the product, you needed to move, you needed to move up market. You needed to make sure that people saw a G and a Nat Geo together that this was going to be a premium product. Tell us a little bit about that and then let's get into signature. Wow, okay, that's a lot. So yes, so when we started, you know, and this was, this was when I started as well. We started looking at how do we create a premium product that doesn't go away from our core values or our core essence of what we want people to experience while they're traveling, which is communities. A little off the beaten path, not just about the sites and the museums and, you know, the meals and the thread count and, you know, the, the Porter Ridge. How do you create, how do you create at a premium level an experience that's both authentic and impactful and benefits the local community? You know, a lot of our, a lot of our staff, a lot of our CEOs as well or our tour leaders, we call them CEOs as you might remember. We're like, well, you know, if we're going to use, if we're going to start using high-rand hotels, we're going to lose that impact on community. But that wasn't necessarily the case. What we found is if you do your research and you do the work, you can find locally owned premium hotels. You can actually help community projects upskilled themselves and upskilled their offering so that it meets the needs of someone that wants a little bit more comfort. Because you can go have tea with a family, instead of sitting on the floor. You invest a little bit with them and say, let's buy some chairs and some cups. And all of a sudden, you've upskilled the, the tea experience, but you haven't removed the authentic nature of it that you're in a family's home, you know, you're, you're meeting the kids, you're meeting the family, they're making the tea the way they've always made it and they share with you like how to make it or what their life is like on a daily basis in this rural village that you're driving through. You know, up until we started doing journeys, people thought that, you know, premium travel was all about seeing the world through a coach window or through a guide's perspective. We wanted to bring it and keep it real and not just be about the guide talking, but about travelers talking with the people in destination. And I think we achieved that. We, you know, it took, it took a while to get all the trips up and going. It took some research. We worked very closely with, with our partners at National Geographic to make sure that we provided opportunities to connect with the society on in destination through projects that were either being funded by the society or experts that had done work for the society. We connected with them to create these unique experiences that at the time we called National Geographic Moments, that really highlighted the work that the society does in the world. And, and we managed to do it on over 80 trips, 80 different. Well, that's what I was keen to ask you is the destinations you have expanded to because of course, you launch a new brand with a partner, you focus on kind of a core list of itineraries where you think people are going to want to go based on the National Geographic audience, the G audience and, you know, knowing many of the team members and how that process works, you know, it is quite fascinating to see how it comes together and then how it, what the response in the marketplace and how it expands, so you've got National Geographic Journeys, you've got National Geographic Family Journeys and you really go around the world with those itineraries. So, tell us a little bit about how that product portfolio has expanded and what are some of the top destinations that you found that really people respond to? Wow. Yes. I mean, so we've almost doubled the portfolio since we launched it 10 years ago. And in terms of key destinations like that are popular, that kind of changes every couple of years and you really have to have your finger on the pulse of trends and travel. And that's what you, well, that's what's unique with us because we have so much, so many different product lines, you know, we have our youth portfolio, we have our classic portfolio, we're actually, you know, always launching in new destinations and we start seeing trends evolve much earlier than if all we did was premium product. We see like what's up and coming and so we're able to kind of go do our research, build our expertise with our, you know, youth product or with our classic product. And then when we feel that we're ready to bring in the premium product line, we go in and we already know kind of like where the places that people are really feeling, getting the best experiences. What are the projects that are the most impactful so that as a premium traveler, you know you're going with a company that's already done their homework. It's not like their first rodeo. For sure. Yeah. So you've doubled the portfolio. You have a clear idea who this customer now is and continuously obviously you get that feedback. You're evolving the product, the destinations and now you have this new signature collection. So tell us, obviously, you know, I think you've very actively just got why this partnership and kind of then why now for this expansion. That's the part I'm keen to learn a bit more about is, you know, that you've got, you know, this tagline that I really like, you know, far beyond traditional luxury. And so tell us a little bit about why the timing is right and you mentioned trends, which is obviously this podcast is exactly the reason that it exists is because a lot of times it's trying to unpack why these trends are happening and trying to project them forward and obviously the focus is long-term trends, demographic changes, consumer behavior changes, luxury has been since the end of the pandemic category that's continued to surge and there's like luxury and there's ultra luxury, you know, having been at the virtual also conference and attended luxury events, it's very clear that the market just keeps going up and up for these types of holidays. So I can see why it meets the moment but tell us a little bit about why you guys decided to introduce the signature collection for 2026. Yeah. So, I mean, we've seen the evolution, even with our own travelers, our own product lines, you know, there's an evolution for a traveler. You know, often you're younger, you're working, you're traveling as a backpacker, you're like on a budget. You get a little bit older, you want a little bit more comfort, you don't so much want to stay in hostile beds, you don't so much want to have to take the overnight bus, you know, so you move to a classic travel style. You get a little bit older and you really make sure you have a comfortable bed every night to sleep in, but in essence, you still want that authentic experience, you still want to go into those villages, you still want to kind of go meet people. You don't want a sterile experience, you just want a much more comfortable bed. And we're seeing that in the luxury space, we're seeing where people, they want that luxury experience, they have the income, they have the, they have the, they're not afraid of spending. They want a really comfortable experience, they want to be a little bit more pampered, but they still want to have an authentic experience. And traditionally that's been really hard to find in the luxury space, you know, it's been really kind of over curated and over kind of like, I don't want to use the word sterilize again, but over kind of cleaned up. And what we notice is people still want those authentic experiences, but they want it at a much more comfortable level. So I mentioned earlier, like going to have tea with the family, and I could expand that onto almost every kind of community experience where sometimes you just have to think through like, okay, we can still have tea with the family, but let's help the family understand how they serve a different market because that family, their business is, is connecting with travelers, that's how they generate some of their income. So how do we get them to, to think about it slightly differently or a community, how do we get a community that doesn't work with the luxury market to understand what they have to do to work with the luxury market? How do we create those components? And that's truly what we recognize and what we've been working on. So the reason why is we felt ready for this, we felt the market was ready for this. And so far the feedback we're getting from, you know, agency partners, from writers, from people like you, is that, wow, you're right on point. And so we're super excited about this. No, and as you should be, I mean, like if you trace the journey, and this is where I really, you know, I find it so fascinating because when I joined, obviously, I was very much a lonely planet independent backpacker style traveler, which is essentially the G adventures classic style of travel, kind of the cross between independent travel and being part of a small group, so you get all the benefits of being part of a small group, but you still have lots of flexibility. And I think that's what certainly appealed to me at the time, but obviously your life changes. I mean, we had kids when I was at G adventures, I went on a Costa Rica trip when our kids were just about to turn two. They sat on our laps. It was a terrible idea, but they nevertheless, they did because we, they were still free to fly at that point. And we did an adventure trip through Costa Rica, and since then, obviously I've softened in my travel and thankfully I've done well in life. So luxury is something that I, not only aspire to, but something that I've had the privilege to travel in. And I, I like both. I'm one of those travelers that every once in a while wants to be able to rough it, but by and large, I definitely like all the creature comforts and I definitely like staying in luxury. And I think, you know, when you've got travelers that have been with you for many years, they've had kids, or they're now in their, you know, their 40s or 50s. And obviously retirees, which is a massive growing market, have to baby boomers were retired the next half were traveling in the, are retiring in the next five years. And as we both know, long before this generational wealth transfer is going to take place, they want to travel as much as possible before they, they passed that down. So, so there's, there's many reasons why the market timing is perfect for this, but tell us a bit about what some of the inclusions are, because I guess that's the part that stands out to me is that there's lots of luxury options. So why national geographic signal collection with G adventures? I know that national geographic is all about exploration, and that's one of the things education, expert access. You've talked about the community tourism and this cultural immersion. How do the kind of combination of those things make this particular style of travel so unique and so special? Like what are the behind the scenes access you get or sort of the expert engagement that really sets this collection apart? So excellent question, and I have a long winded answer for, go for it, that's a beautiful podcast. That's why I said to E for work, I'm going to ask some long questions and you can give some long answers because that's what, that's what our audience is interested in. I'm going to start with just the concept of expertise, okay, and I mentioned that earlier. So one of the things we looked at when we were planning this with national geographic is how do we, how do we highlight the localized expertise? Because traditionally, you know, experts came from the US, the UK, and traveled with the group in destination. But what we said is we are able to identify experts who are just as well-known as who are leading authorities in their field that are based in the destination. And by looking at it that way, you actually create a deeper connection with the destination you're visiting. You have the same level of expertise, you know, leaders in their field, but they're from the destination. So they're able to provide you with some insight that no matter how often you've been to a destination, you're never truly going to be, if you're in Egypt, you're never truly going to be Egyptian. You're not going to fully understand what that means and how that relates to an experience around growing up. So an example that I would give is you have an expert archaeologist who's done digs in Egypt. They can tell you about the digs, they can tell you the history. You have an expert archaeologist who's from Egypt. He can tell you about growing up and finding these artifacts in their backyard. Finding them when they were going for a walk in around some of the digs, growing up with it. There is this innate, like, internal connection to the subject that as an expert coming from outside the country, you don't necessarily have. And that's the beauty of the approach we're taking with expertise here. It's really about identifying local leaders and leaders in their field that are going to be escorting the group throughout its journey. So that's from an expertise perspective. And working with the National Geographic, we're able to identify those themes and those local experts, we're able to work with the content that is related to the work that's been done by the society around research, around exploration and really connect that with local people. From an exclusive access perspective, because we are present, and I mean, G is a significant player in most markets, like you look at us in Morocco, we're actually one of the largest inbound operators in Morocco from any market, same thing in Egypt. So we have the scale and the understanding of the destination. So we're able to work with our local teams to create really unique experiences that are not necessarily possible if you're just working with a DMC or if you just work in one segment because we discover stuff with the youth segment that we say, you know what, this is something if we work with them, we can create a really exclusive experience. So I'll give you one of the really unique features. So in Morocco, we launched a new project last year with the community just outside of Marrakesh, south of Marrakesh, and it was a women's co-op. And these were ladies that were doing some basic weaving, they had a small center. Not a lot of tourists came by, most of their stuff, they would sell to someone who would sell it on the market in Marrakesh. The same time with our project Trees for Days, we identified a tree planting project that was just outside the same community. And because we had local teams, they connected the two together. And with the team, we were able to build a really unique experience. So our Trees for Days, if you're not familiar with it, is for every day you're on tour, we plan to tree. And the projects, the tree planting projects are all over the world. So in Morocco, we work with the Atlas Foundation to plant trees throughout. But here in this, just outside this village, there was one of their projects, a tree nursery that grows saplings for fruit trees and olive trees. And the purpose of planting the trees are for farmers to replant fields of fruit trees or olive trees to create a crop for them, a source of revenue. The women's weaving project was a source of revenue for the women. We connected the two together and have created an experience for signature where you're not only just going to go visit a project, you're actually going to go visit how tourism can change the trajectory of a community. And it's unique because it's only for us. We're the only ones who've built this. It's exclusive. And at this nursery, you hear the story of how the nursery is moving away from plastic like sampling pots to fabric pots that are woven by the women's collaborative. And again, we worked with them to connect them. And the idea is that you have a half day experience in a community that's been curated, but it's driven by the local community. Like we're not telling them they have to do this. We give them the travelers, we give them the funds through travel to build this project and to build up their community. To the point where one of the leaders of the women's co-op just got her driver's license. She's gotten a car for the first time and she's driving to Marrakesh for the first time in her life. And she's in her 40s. The impact this can have on the communities is spectacular. And you know, while we're there, they're going to meet a farmer who was part of the initial planting of the olive trees and the fruit trees. And he's about to have his first crop in the next year. And the impact that we'll have on his family, having a crop for the first time in 10 years is going to be huge. The impact on the women in the co-op is huge. And the impact on the community is going to be significant. I foresee that in four or five years, these ladies are going to be able to send their kids to college. These farmers are going to be able to send their kids to college because they have an income for a first time. And they're part of the tourist economy for the first time. Because tourbuses used to just drive by that village on the way to the Atlas Mountains. It's one of the things that really stood out to me is that when you look at this concept of transformative travel, it's no longer simply about like your own self-interest. Most of these travelers are motivated by a greater good and are conscientious of the impact they have. And especially when you're traveling much more luxuriously. And you can see the difference if you're sitting in a first class coach bus in India, for example. And you see the disconnect between yourself looking through the glass and the reality of the people that are living in that society. That's not the style of travel that a lot of people aspire to or that they're seeking. And so the experiences you just outlined, the reason I think it's so meaningful is that ultimately that's what affluent travelers are also looking for is making sure that there's a positive impact on the local community. And for me, of course, as soon as you mention women's weaving projects, or I mean, I was raised by a single mom. So that instantly for me, I'm always advocating for opportunities for women in various societies when they don't have the same opportunities as men for various cultural reasons. So that's always something that stands out to me. But everyone has their own, you know, certainly most travelers, they can be motivated by different aspects of what's going to lift up a community. I know Tony Wheeler is still part of the G community. I know he was at your GX adventure. I loved working with Tony Wheeler when I was in Australia because it was very much core to the Lonely Planet DNA. It's why they published a guidebook to Myanmar because they wanted to make sure that they got money in the hands of local people, despite the fact that people protested the book because they were concerned that the military junta was keeping people down by virtue of controlling the hotels. They decided to make a stand on that. I know that's core to G and it's interesting to hear how important that is to the National Geographic Signature Collection. So I do, there's a couple of things I want to make sure we jump on to, obviously I want to talk about who this product is for and how they buy it. But just before we segue into that, I just have one more question on the product side. And that is the portfolio that you have launched and the reason you have chosen the destinations you have, because as I understand it, the stand out destinations for the launch are Peru, of course, very core to the DNA of G. South Africa, Japan, Central Asia, Vietnam, Jordan. Jordan for all the reasons you were just very much highlighting. But tell us about the approach to selecting those destinations specifically. And I guess as it then relates to what I'm keen to hear your view on is who takes these trips. So tell us about the destinations and then by all means please just segue right into who is a National Geographic Signature Traveler? Yeah, excellent. So I mean, listen, the product line currently exists and is operated by National Geographic directly. So we did, we are absorbing some of the destinations that they currently feature, that people offering trips that people have loved and will continue to love. We didn't bring, we're not bringing back all of the destinations they had. We really looked at places where people wanted to go that really had an appeal for this demographic. We wanted to have a global product line. We also are approaching it in a very phased approach. So we have our launch plan that's going to go over two years for this product line. Similarly, we plan to get close to 80 different trips globally. For launch, we are launching with 33 trips. The team is always telling me that number is changing because of me, because I'm always like, well, what about if we did this as well? What about if we did this as well? So I'm always changing that number, making people a little bit crazy, but that's part of our DNA at G. It's always pushing the envelope. And we selected destinations where we could really highlight where expertise and community can come together and create a very special Nat Geo experience. We wanted destinations where there were stories to tell, where there was exploration to be had, where we had, for launch, the expertise and the knowledge to really do it justice. Because while I talk a lot about community tourism and a lot about projects, everything is we had to be able to operate it at a level of comfort and a level of service that meets the luxury standards. So while you're going into communities, and I talked about how we can make it more comfortable to visit in communities, you still need to be able to get a bus that is going to be comfortable enough for these travelers that's going to have AC or heat if you're in the north, that's going to have hand sanitizers when you get on, cold towels, water, that you're going to be able to find hotels and accommodations that meet the needs. So all of that went into how we chose the destinations. I mean, we have a couple of hero destinations that I particularly like. And we have some new destinations that are going to be new for us. So Palau is one of the new destinations for G and we've been working with a partner there really actively who has been operating at this level and was actually the same operator that handled the current trip to Palau through National Geographic. So it provides some consistency and some continuity to the experience. Central Asia, we've expanded the destination there to really offer kind of a more unique experience in Central Asia. Yeah, I'm really excited about China because in China we're actually going to go out to the goby desert and experience the Silk Road, the Chinese Silk Road before heading into Xi'an which was the end of the Silk Road. And so really it was looking at how we can really merge all of these components we've been talking about. So in terms of who the traveler is, the traveler is someone who is looking to go just beyond visiting a destination at a super comfortable level, at a luxury level. They want more than just these Michelin star dinners and just these constant, only exclusive visits. They really want to connect with the place they're going. They want to feel it. They are looking to be an explorer and that's truly the approach we've taken with everything. Definitely we expect North American travelers to be the majority of travelers the first few years. Because of our global distribution we actually expect very quickly to see the traveler mix to look more like every G-trip which is on every trip you'll have some Brits, some Germans, some Australians, Canadians, Americans, South Africans and that's the beauty of exploring with G and this is going to be the beauty about this product, the signature product is it's not going to be mononational, it's going to be multinational on trips. So you not only are exploring a foreign country, a new culture but you're exploring it with people from different countries and that really kind of creates an incredible community of travelers and that's what we're super excited about seeing that happen in the luxury space. Eve that's really interesting and that's why I wanted to focus on the product in so much detail before we got into the customer because ultimately a traveler is trying to decide is this trip for me and it needs to speak to them on many different levels and one of the things I still very much remember from working with Jeff Russell, I remember all the highs and the lows but one of the things that Jeff had said to me then that stayed with me is that when someone's trying to plan a trip, it's the biggest decision they're going to make financially after a house and a car but it's actually often more complicated because it's their time off and so the idea that not only you're going to spend a significant amount of your savings of money you've put aside to take that holiday but you want that holiday to be special because it's literally the two weeks you get that year and so it's a combination of those two things. Understanding the product experience is incredibly important the most successful companies are the ones that stay close to their customer really understand the product experience because so much of this industry has been as grown by word of mouth people love traveling with G they love traveling with national geographic by G adventures they tell other people and that's how you get customers but ultimately understanding who that customer is and how you get more of them is a key to the marketing team of course and so when you actually think about who's going to be on the trip and that's the next thing that comes along for everyone that's going on a group tour is they then ask the question who's going to be there with me it's why we all had to have forums and places for travelers to post because that's the first question they want to ask how many people are going to be on this trip where are they from and one of the big difference makers with international group tour company is making sure it is a global audience that they want to know that they're going to be surrounded by like-minded people but they're also going to be surrounded by interesting people from around the world. So you started to go into that but let's just make sure that we paint a pretty clear profile of who is a national geographic signature traveler and really of course it can be a broad range but likely it is someone 50 60 plus either couples traveling that are retired some people obviously widowed or divorced I know there's one of the biggest trends we've seen is solo female travelers and the stat that I always found fascinating that I learned last year when I was speaking at the Forbes travel guide conference is that 50% of female travelers are either widowed or divorced because you often think of a female solo traveler and you're picturing someone in their 20s or early 30s but that's not often the case. So tell us a little bit more about when you're designing this product who you had in mind and if you were to close your eyes and open them again on your on a trip who would you be surrounded by when when we design the trips who were we looking at we were listen we were looking at people who were professionals mostly professionals you know doctors attorneys professors higher higher income earners because this is a higher price point product people who wanted on trip to not have to worry about the comfort or the logistics they want to know that things are taken care of and that there's not going to be glitches you know that's the luxury market. So you know if for anyone who listens to the podcast who thinks like you know all my talk about community tourism means that it's going to be a little less comfortable that's actually completely false it is going to be a very comfortable experience. So put put all of the comfort and the service level aside for a second the people these trips are for are for people who really want to experience a destination deeper than most travel companies do in a way where they're going to feel that they develop a connection with the destination but also with people in the destination and in terms of closing your eyes and being on tour imagine yourself surrounded by people that are probably within 50 to 75 years old you know recently retired or or at the peak of their career couples solo travelers a blend of both and we're talking people coming from the US from Canada Europe UK Ireland Australia New Zealand Germany and having a blend of that that would be representative that we see on on all our tours. Our current national geographic journeys tours represent that same blend of multi-nationals and and the beauty with that is you're not serving a unique market so you're going to have people who come with different perspectives different kind of thoughts about the world and the conversations you have at dinner are going to be much more global than than just mononational and that that's the beauty of like you talk about the two weeks vacation you're you're going to be with people who share kind of that same world view as you because that's who wants this kind of tour and then let's talk about how they purchase it because that's one other thing that's really important for our listeners and this is a B2B podcast many of our listeners are travel agents travel agencies around the world many of them already sell G adventures I speak a lot of industry conferences of course so we have you know a broad B2B audience we also have customers are listening to this of course we find that actually we're growing our B2C audience interesting interestingly enough is people want to work in the industry learn more about travel and hear from experts like yourself and so when you think about how this product is sold and this is one of the things it's you know an adventure travel or group travels you consider it's a considered purchase it's high touch it's part of the reason that there were concept stores and and why the idea that you need to make sure that you have contact centers and sales teams and that you know there's a huge level of education and obviously a massive level of trust in this whole booking process and sure people also do book direct online but tell us a little bit about how people book these trips and how important I guess in the grand scheme are travel agencies and trade partners to this collection I mean extremely important I mean they they travel agents and trade partners and agency chains are our our core to selling this and in fact the the number of of travelers who book luxury is much higher with agency than it is direct so so it's going to be key for us what I can say to to any travel agency agent or any agent partner who's listening to the podcast is when when you look at the luxury space and your choice of of of companies that you can book with you know traditionally G hasn't been looked at as a luxury operator like a lot of people might say should we should we should we venture down that road we've done our homework I mean we have positioned and we have built the product to be able to stand against any other luxury operator from a from a hotel perspective transportation meals everything we we talk a little bit less about thread count and more about authenticity and experience but the thread count is there and I use that as an example because you know we're using the same hotels in some places we're using more different because we felt it was more local or locally owned and gave had gave back more but from a from an experience perspective for for for agents and their travelers you know they're not going to be touching their luggage they're not going to be reaching into their pocket to tip the there's no optional tours like this is very inclusive and very thoughtful and you know the logistics are managed from beginning to end and so the confidence should be there it's finding the right client who wants that authentic experience is really for an agent the most important thing like if you if you have a traveler who's sitting in front of you and says I really want to know and understand Nepal or Morocco and I don't just want to go and have great like great food and see you know museums and have some exclusive experiences that I can that I can talk about I want to get under the skin of the destination a little bit more and I want all of those other things then go with signature if all they want is just the the thread count and and they can still come with us but we are going to be delivering that under the skin experience a little bit. Yeah I think what's really interesting is that when you look at the luxury market and you know you mentioned things like thread count having been at the Forbes travel guide conference working with luxury hotels and these are things these are the questions that they get asked these are the expectations of those types of properties but when you look at luxury cruise lines for example I know Bruce Poon tip does a great job of this when he's giving keynotes kind of railing against the cruise industry given the fact that it doesn't contribute to local communities and obviously pollution and the environmental concerns which are obvious when I was in Galapagos recently we traveled on land my family and I we had the most magnificent time and the number of people that thanked us for doing that that we weren't just on a ship that were visiting for the day and that no money flowed to the locals we stayed in local hotels we stayed in nice hotels and we ate at nice restaurants and the number of people that commented that how much they appreciate that style of travel because it is a it is a very small percentage of people that travel land to Galapagos because it is you know a beautiful place to see by the water but there is an impact on the local community when you in terms of the travel style that you choose as you well know but the the part I wanted to get to on this is that when you think about the potential for travel advisors that will now have an alternative to be able to sell a luxury product that is the National Geographic Signature Collection I presume and I think this is where you're going with this is all of a sudden there is a product offering that they can share with their clients that wouldn't otherwise be in the G adventures consideration set but once you have the National Geographic Signature Collection all of a sudden you have a product that they can sell and you can bring those people into their into into the ecosystem of G and National Geographic so tell us in terms of being able to do that obviously that requires training that requires resources all and working with travel agents is a is a major undertaking that many travel companies can't they struggle with or they can't quite you know understand all the things that are involved in organizing familiarization trips or being able to do things like a GX event but tell us how you guys are planning to empower these agents what are some of the tools that you're making available for them an additional training or support so that you can really expand and sell this collection in 2026 and beyond yeah excellent so interesting lineup right before the right before our our podcast started I was actually doing a training with our GPS is our global purpose specialist or our outside sales team because they've been asking like you need to give us more more knowledge more more more content more context like we're starting to work with agency partners and agencies so our our team in the field is out there working with our our key are our most prominent agency partners to develop training and they are always available for any agent who wants to learn a little bit more about what's available in terms of support and training to give them that training to share the knowledge and I would encourage any agent who wants to know more about this to join some of the training sessions that are going to be that are going to be done as part of our roll out we are rolling out some training sessions with key consortiums so so it's going to be available and and we are going to be doing some fan trips in in the next year with with top producing agents from around the world that's great I appreciate the those details I'm sure many of our travel advisors are listening to this will reach out for more details and we'll certainly finish off with that there's a couple more questions I wanted to ask you while we have this time together and really it's about looking ahead in your vision as to where this goes from here because I'm sure everyone's got a pretty good understanding now if anyone didn't know G they definitely do if people are you didn't know about the national geographic certainly they do now and of course the signature collection the big development for 2026 and beyond and given that you've been you know core to G adventures product the national geographic and now the signature collection and you highlighted to us that this is a multi year roll out and you know this obviously a very bright future envisioned for this style of luxury travel and but there's a couple things I wanted to ask you on this is that like when you develop this product what were some of the things you're hoping travelers take away from these journeys beyond just you know the high end service and clearly being able to take some beautiful photos what is your hope for travelers that have these experiences I know I started about this conversation about transformative travel and come back feeling changed I'm sure there's something that goes through your mind as a whether it's that that heroes journey or if it is the the experience of connecting with others the people are seeking so much today from the style of travel but yeah what what is the big takeaway you'd like travelers to get from a national geographic signature experience oh I mean there there's a few of them I think the biggest one is I want people at the end of their journey or their trip their experience to to feel like they've really deep in their understanding of of of the destination they've been to whether it's Egypt and I mean you know Egypt it's the pyramids it's the temples but it's more than that it's the people it's it's the culture and I hope that me and my team has been able to weave not just the the the sites but the story of the place and a connection to the people so that when they end the trip they feel more connected to the place and the people they've met but also to their fellow travelers on the trip and that they really feel that they've made an impact in the communities they've visited because I think that's the num that's one of the biggest takeaway that you feel that through travel you've had a positive impact on the world and Bruce says that all the time to us you know and that's why he started G was to to see travel the travel done right can be a force for good I believe that 100% and I think when we design our tours we design with that scope in mind like how do we make this a positive impact not just for the communities we're visiting but for the travelers so that they come home and they go wow I never want to travel it with someone else I just want to travel this way because it was so meaningful and what do you expect or anticipate the broader influence this might have on the travel industry with the launch of national geographic signature style with G I mean I I I hope that other companies kind of look at our product and they say you know what let's let's absorb some of these concepts and ideals like I've seen it with our other travel styles and we never like say oh well how will they they're stealing like we're like great it's good that travel is changing that that is ultimately what we want to see happen you know it's it's one of the reasons why we never like with all our planetary projects we we never actually make them sign an exclusivity agreement it we want them to work with others we want them to expand we want the impact to be felt much deeper and two last questions one you've highlighted some of the incredible experiences you can have but for you is there a signature moment or a specific itinerary that you personally can't wait for travelers to experience where where's the Easter egg that you've put into these itineraries what is that oh my god that's a tough one give us one what is the big standout that is like if I'm going to someone's going to get online and book today I mean I I have to say I I I I think I I have a lot of favorites but I I think my most favorite is going to be Morocco and it it's because we really have built something that's going to be unique that no other luxury operator was operating a similar itinerary and and it's because it looks at Morocco from a number of different perspectives and it's all at the great level and then we end at at you know at one of the greatest hotels in the world outside Maric just in Marrakesh just outside Marrakesh the Albroy there you know was voted I think two years ago the number one hotel in the world yeah and and and and it's just that the community components we fit in there like around storytelling around connections with the National Geographic Society are just multilayered and I can say anyone who does that trip will fall in love with the destination and experience some really cool places yeah well I certainly look forward to how hopefully having the opportunity to to take one of these trips in 2026 I mean the product portfolio there's a number of destinations that I have not been to yet so I was looking at some of the itineraries to see what stood out to me and and so which one stood out to you ah good question so I am desperately keen to get back to Peru and I've only been once and I've and my travel style to Peru I love my experience in Peru but I actually want to go back and experience Peru with National Geographic Signature Collection so that's the one I went back to because I was like ah the heart where it all began and and I you know it was took me a long time to get to Machu Picchu but we took the train and we so I I have an idea of what to expect but I just loved that experience so much but there's so much of the country that I haven't seen and there was a number of standouts on the itinerary that was like oh like I just so that that to me but I've been to South Africa, I've been to Japan I've done Vietnam and I've done Jordan and so for me it was it was like yeah going back to Peru but Morocco would be a close second I have to say so it's but for other people who are having that exact challenge now looking at the website I'm I'm sure I'm you know I mentioned at the beginning introduction but for those of you who are been trying to multitask here obviously gadventures.com but you can look up the National Geographic style of travel and the Signature Collection specifically so it's gadventures.com/gx/signature but obviously just use the navigation on the website or but what would be the ways for anyone after this to be able to connect with you Eve or to learn more about partnering with G or to take a trip what are all the best ways what what directions would you point them in? All right I'm not going to share my email because I wouldn't be able to keep up but I would be to reach out to to anyone in our in of our GPSs or outside salespeople and and they they have no problem contacting me and asking questions and I'm happy to arrange you know anyone who who wanted to really have a conversation I'm happy to do so and reach out to our PR department or our our sales department and they get messages to me if anyone wants to retail. Yeah that's great thank you Eve it's been a real pleasure speaking to you I mean this is the first time we've had a chance to meet and get to know each other feels like I've known you for years I certainly look forward to seeing you at some point over the course of the year and wish you and the team every success going forward but thanks again for joining us congrats on the launch of the National Geographic Signature Collection and wishing you and the team every success. Thank you and I look forward to the success as well and thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Thanks so much for joining us on this special spotlight edition of travel trends as we spoke to Eve Marso the VP of product at G adventures to celebrate and highlight the launch of the National Geographic Signature Collection. I just want to say a special thank you to Eve for joining us for this conversation and sharing all your insights. I think this is not only an exciting moment for G adventures but also for the future of purpose driven high end travel. It's an exciting new chapter that I think has the potential to really redefine what luxury travel can look like in 2026 and beyond. I also want to congratulate the entire team at G adventures on this exciting launch whether you're a traveler or a travel agent I encourage you to check out gadventures.com to explore the full signature collection and to learn more about these incredible journeys and don't forget we do post clips and highlights from these conversations on our social channels which you can find on LinkedIn YouTube and Instagram at travel trends podcast and we have one other very exciting bit of news to share with you too and that is that I'm incredibly excited to welcome G adventures founder and CEO Bruce Poon tip to the podcast this year where we're going to discuss his new book community ship. I'm really looking forward to recording that with him and sharing that conversation with you so make sure that you are registered on the streaming platform of your choice to be notified when new episodes go live. Thanks again for joining us and until next time safe travels. [Music]