(Click Here to Read Part I of this Blog).
In 2013, Bruce Poon Tip, the Founder of the amazing adventure travel company G Adventures, wrote the New York Times bestseller “Looptail,” the story of how G Adventures rose to success. Tip succeeded in creating a new kind of tourism that then became a cause to use travel to make the world a better place. The “Looptail” name refers to the wonderful story of how G Adventures got its start from an act of generosity to the then struggling Tip as he started his business leveraged on credit card debt, always one step ahead of creditors. As a final act of kindness, a printing company on the verge of bankruptcy printed Tip’s first batch of 50,000 tour brochures and promptly folded, clearly never intending to bill Tip.
For Tip, it was a nearly spiritual moment, and he decided he had to “pay it forward” by using his business to help others. “When you pay it forward with the Looptail, it comes back to you in the form of happiness.”
The BeachCorps model will take Looptail “pay it forward” concepts to new heights. First, in all our contracts with nonprofits BeachCorps is contractually obligated to give 50% of profits we make (inshallah) to nonprofit causes and as bonuses to our employees. We will succeed only if we help our nonprofits grow and prosper, and we will shine only if they shine.
Second, BeachCorps adds a second vital “pay it forward” loop to the Looptail. BeachCorps only support projects that include locals who are themselves paying it forward by contributing to the well-being of their own communities. Thus, BeachCorps addresses a key problem in sustainable development and voluntourism specifically by avoiding a culture of dependency and instead focusing on empowering locals and worthy nonprofit causes. We de-emphasize the “hero” role of volunteers, focusing instead on local heroes and real causes.
While we love the idea of staying in lodging that suits your taste for comfort, we agree it’s important to get outside the resort at times to see the world around you, safely off the beaten path. We agree that travelers to a developing country who stay entirely in their Western comfort zones are “insulting the one thing that makes any country great; that county’s people.” We think our focus on people-to-people engagement over manual labor as the main ingredient for our success will lead towards more spontaneous moments of fun, real connections, better memories, and superior global citizens.
Since BeachCorps exists to support great nonprofits, BeachCorps has included the G Adventures sustainable travel nonprofit Planeterra as a beneficiary organization in our “Sustainability Pledge” Instagram photo contest, which awards $US 100 each month to a worthy nonprofit nominated by the person with the winning photo in the contest. We hope Planeterra wins!
BeachCorps partners with a sector of the tourism industry Bruce Poon Tip strongly criticizes—the all-inclusive industry—in order to mainstream sustainability. Our platform gives discounts for sustainable lodging, including locally owned lodging whose owners are themselves giving back to their community. We hope to gradually add more local lodging providers, including in poor communities, while always being ready to reward travelers who decide to stay in hotels that support sustainability.
If we only rely on backpackers, adventure travelers and ecotourists to advance sustainable travel, we are doomed to fail. We must find ways to mainstream sustainability. We believe the BeachCorps model holds promise. G Adventures and Planeterra have been huge inspirations for us as we launch sales this summer. We hope G Adventures doesn’t sue us for constantly saying we love them and hoping to copy their amazing customer service practices, including their forgiving cancelation policies. (Fun fact: Gap clothing actually sued G Adventures when it was called Gap Adventures. Some companies don’t get it.)
So we love and are inspired by “Looptail” and the pay it forward concept. Bruce Poon Tip’s second book in 2015 “Doing Big Little Things,” a creative reflection on travel meant to be “a travel journal you get dirty taking around the world,” reminds us very much of our own company motto “A Little Grain of Sand.” The idea behind “Doing Big Little Things” is doing everything with purpose, especially travel, so your every small act creates a bigger whole—one little grain of sand at a time.
When the BeachCorps Beach Bum grows up, he wants to be like Bruce Poon Tip. We agree with Tip. “Travel can transform communities and lives around the world.”
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Photo: Cerys Lowe @ceryslowe_1
