In 1990, Bruce Poon Tip founded G.A.P Adventures in order to deliver an authentic travel experience to travellers, like himself, who craved adventures that went beyond all-inclusive resorts.

Since then, G.A.P Adventures has grown to become a world leader in adventure travel, offering more than 1,000 small group experiences, safaris and expeditions on all 7 continents to more than 85,000 travellers a year. The company's worldwide adventures focus on cultural interaction, wildlife encounters, and active travel. G.A.P Adventures' revenue now totals over $120 million and the company has offices around the world with a staff of close to 600 employees all of whom share Bruce's passion for travel.

Bruce's numerous speaking engagements have included 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 and a presentation at the UN World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development. At the request of the World Bank and UNESCO, Bruce has been 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.

Among his many business awards, Bruce has been honoured with Entrepreneur of the Year, Innovative Executive and one of the Top 100 Leaders of Tomorrow. G.A.P Adventures has been recognized as a 50 Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Employer. Bruce has also been presented with the Global Traders Leadership award for excellence in exporting and international business. National Geographic Adventure recently rated G.A.P Adventures as the "Best Do It All Outfitter" on Earth in an international competition and for six consecutive years, this prestigious magazine has selected a G.A.P Adventures tour as one of its 25 Best New Adventure Trips of the Year.

G.A.P Adventures is universally recognized as an industry leader in sustainable tourism and community development. Through its non-profit foundation, Planeterra, the company is dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of people around the world through support of international charities, local organizations and community projects.

In recognition of this dedication to ethical business practices and sustainable tourism, G.A.P Adventures has been named by Condé Nast Traveler magazine on its annual Green List, which selects its winners based on their commitment to environmental initiatives, contributions to local communities, and quality of the guest experience. G.A.P Adventures has also received the prestigious Ethics In Action Award for its use of small-scale accommodation, local transportation and support of locally owned and operated low impact businesses.

Through G.A.P Adventures, Bruce carries on raising the bar in an industry that he not only pioneered, but continues to lead.

When Tony and Maureen Wheeler arrived in Sydney at the end of 1972 after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe they had 27 cents left between them. In 1973 they published the very first Lonely Planet guidebook to tell the story of their trip from Europe to Australia. From that self-published title Lonely Planet has grown to become the world's largest independent guidebook publisher with over 500 staff and offices in London and Oakland as well as the head office in Melbourne, Australia. Lonely Planet sells more than six million books a year and has over 500 titles in print as well as one of the world's most popular travel websites, a fully digital photo image library and a television production company. According to the New York Times Tony is 'the trailblazing patron saint of the world's backpackers and adventure travellers.' In his recently published book Bad Lands, Tony travels down George Bush's 'axis of evil' with additional excursions to other misguided countries. Travelling with the environment in mind has always been part of the Lonely Planet plan and is reflected in titles like Code Green and Flightless.

Costas Christ is Global Travel Editor and columnist for National Geographic Adventure and serves as the Chairman for the World Travel and Tourism Council - Tourism for Tomorrow Awards which recognizes leading models in sustainable tourism that are helping to protect the natural and cultural heritage of our planet. He is one of the pioneers of ecotourism, serving as a founding member and former Chairman of the Board of The International Ecotourism Society. As a Senior Director at Conservation International, Costas supervised ecotourism projects in more than a dozen countries focused on the protection of nature and community development. He serves on the Advisory Panel of World Responsible Tourism Day, the Advisory Board of The Conservation Foundation, and on the Executive Board of Sustainable Travel International. His travels and work have taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents, including expeditions to some of the world's most remote wilderness areas and archeological sites - home to traditional cultures, endangered species and the make or break world of basic survival for millions of people. He believes that tourism, properly planned and managed, can be a powerful opportunity for protecting the environment and sustaining the social and economic well being of local communities.

Costas is the lead author of Tourism and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism's Global Footprint and a contributing author in Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places. His articles and essays on travel and tourism have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and Sunday Times of London. He has appeared many times on television and radio, including NBC Today Show, National Public Radio, ABC's Good Morning America, CNN, BBC, CBS, NBC and PBS, to advocate for a new vision of tourism that embraces care for our planet, respects cultural diversity and directly supports local people's livelihoods. In 2008, Costas was honored as Visionary of the Year by the International Hotel and Restaurant Awards for his work in promoting sustainable tourism best practices. He was recently appointed to the Advisory Group of the Prince of Wales Charities focusing on a Call To Action for sustainable tourism as a way to help address climate change. He lives on a 40-acre family farm on the coast of Maine.

Jonathan Katz is the CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
For over 20 years, he has explored, engaged, and advanced the work of America's state and jurisdictional arts agencies, all the while defining and refining the role of government support in the arts, and the function of arts, culture, and heritage in public life. Prior to his work with NASAA, he was a professor of public policy and administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield, where he directed the graduate program in arts administration beginning in 1978 and established the Sangamon Institute in Arts Administration (also serving as president of AAAE). Before then, Katz was executive director of the Kansas Arts Commission. Katz has written, spoken, and consulted extensively in cultural policy planning, organizational development, and leadership and management training. Recently appointed to the U.S. National Commission on UNESCO, he advises the board of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies (IFACCA) and has conducted planning and professional development sessions for cultural agencies in five cities in Mexico for the U.S. government.

Editor, writer, tourism consultant, self-taught geographer and sometime photographer, Jonathan B. Tourtellot has served as a National Geographic Society senior editor since 1980 and became the Society's first director of sustainable destinations in 2001. He is also the Geotourism Editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine.

Tourtellot originated the concept of geotourism, defined as "tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents." He is primary author of the Geotourism Charter, a set of principles now being adopted by various countries and regions around the world. He helped develop the study "Geotourism: The New Trend in Travel," the first major survey of U.S. traveler behavior and attitudes about destination sustainability. He initiated, supervises and reports on the "Places Rated" destination stewardship surveys published annually in National Geographic Traveler magazine.

In helping to expand Traveler's coverage of tourism and destination management, Tourtellot wrote the magazine's first two feature stories on the topic, "The Two Faces of Tourism" (July/August 1999) and "The Tourism Wars" (October 2000), both of which won awards. He writes the column "DestinationWatch" for Traveler, as well as other articles on tourism impacts and destination management.

Tourtellot also launched National Geographic's new Geotourism MapGuides, unique in their requirement of participation by the communities involved. He leads National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations, dedicated to protecting the world's distinctive places through wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.