Gap Adventures Launches Largest Global Online Contest in Company History

    TORONTO, ON, February 10, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- To celebrate 20 innovative years providing life-changing travel experiences across the globe, Gap Adventures is launching the Create Your Own Adventure contest (www.createyourownadventure.com), the largest and most ambitious interactive competition in the company's history.

The global online contest invites everyone from once-a-year vacationers to seasoned globetrotters to submit an itinerary for the tour of their dreams, virtually anywhere in the world, virtually any way they want. The winning entry--determined through public online polling and input from a panel of world-renowned judges--will be featured in a Gap Adventures brochure in 2011.

"Create Your Own Adventure is the biggest and most exciting contest we've ever staged," said Gap Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip. "I'm thrilled that in celebration of our 20th anniversary, we're inviting everyone from aspiring to avid travellers to build their dream itinerary and share it with the rest of the world. One of our company's core values is to create happiness and community the world over, and I can't think of a better way of doing that than by unlocking the creativity of so many people."

That nine-person panel includes Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler, filmmaker and adventurer Celine Cousteau--the granddaughter of iconic explorer Jacques Cousteau--Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, National Geographic Adventure Magazine editor-in-chief John Rasmus, explorer and BBC presenter Benedict Allen, Outside Magazine executive editor Mike Roberts, adventurer Alastair Humphreys, polar explorer and author Tom Avery, and Gap Adventures' Bruce Poon Tip.

Everyone with a winning tour idea can log on to www.createyourownadventure.com and use the customized itinerary engine to select up to three countries to include as part of their trip, a name and duration for the tour and a selection of highlights and activities. They will then be asked to provide a summary of why they think theirs is an adventure like none other. Deadline for submission is March 31, 2010.

The creator of the winning tour will have the opportunity to experience their adventure along with two lucky friends, and enjoy a host of exciting prizes--provided by Sony Canada, Lonely Planet, Kobo Books, KEEN Inc., Outside Magazine, World Nomads and Universal Music Canada. In addition, five Mystery Tour winners from around the world will be chosen through a draw to join the lucky creator on this inaugural trip. The winners will be announced May 25, 2010.

About Gap Adventures
Gap Adventures is a world leader in the adventure travel industry offering small group adventures on all seven continents and beyond to more than 100,000 global travellers annually. The award-winning trips, which focus on culture, nature and active travel, are ideal for those with a sense of adventure - people who want to leave the beaten path and authentically immerse themselves in a local culture or environment to experience the real world in a sustainable manner. Demonstrating its ongoing cultural, social and economic commitment to responsible tourism, Gap Adventures established the Planeterra Foundation, as a way the company and its passengers can give back to the communities visited. For more information, please visit www.gapadventures.com and www.planeterra.org

Media Contact:
Marie Anne MacRae
Business Development & Media Relations Manager
Gap Adventures
Direct: 416 263-4675
[email protected]

# # #