Speaking with travelBulletin this week, G Adventures Managing Director for Australia, New Zealand and Asia, Sean Martin, said the local market has seen 22% growth year-on-year, with a rising interest in Vietnam “leading the way” for Aussie travellers.
“Vietnam is such a great country – especially if you do it in an immersive way where you are visiting local communities, it really is such an enriching transformational experience for the customer,” Martin said.
Peru also continues to perform well for the operator, Martin confirmed, a destination that struggled to maintain traction among Aussies coming out of the pandemic as a result of diminished air connectivity.
Flash forward several years, and the allure of the South American country has returned, fuelled by its ongoing investment in local Peruvian communities.
“Peru is so important to us, we have got over 25 community projects set up in the country that feeds so much of its travel ecosystem now,” Martin said.
While Peru has picked up its pace, the brand’s regional chief conceded that more air lift is needed out of Australia and New Zealand to keep that growth momentum going.
“We definitely need more [air lift to Peru], what is strange though is that the US carriers have actually become more competitive, which is a horrible way to do it, but at least that has got things moving the right way.
“We look after New Zealand as well and it is an even bigger challenge from there, so we are crying out for more air connectivity [to Peru] because at the end of the day, that’s what drives so much of our businesses is affordable air.”
Touching on more developing markets out of Australia for G Adventures this year, Martin revealed that while there has been a rise in interest for destinations like Morocco and Jordan, South Africa is probably the most exciting prospect.
“We have a National Geographic journey in South Africa that is growing at triple digits year-on-year,” Martin said. “It has an NPS score of 86, and when you combine G with a brand like National Geographic, it’s pretty hard to beat.”
