Gap Adventures Recognized as One of Canada's Best Workplaces for 2010

    TORONTO, ON, April 21, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Gap Adventures (www.gapadventures.com) is excited to announce that it has been named on the Great Place To Work Institute Canada's (www.greatplacetowork.ca) prestigious 2010 list of the 75 Best Workplaces in Canada.

Gap Adventures has long focused on building a strong company culture and has emphasized its core values in all aspects of business. Gap Adventures actively hires entrepreneurial travel addicts who love changing lives and are determined to lead their industry in service.

"I'm very proud and humbled that Gappers have helped our organization gain national recognition as one of Canada's top workplaces," said Gap Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip. "Earning a position on this list is a huge achievement and a sign that we're not only changing our travellers' lives with our authentic, sustainable adventures, but we're even helping to change the lives of our employees by providing a great work environment."

Poon Tip attributed his company's recognition and high employee engagement to a number of initiatives including generous travel benefits and one free trip every year, the nurturing of a vibrant, entrepreneurial culture "owned by an internal 'Culture Club' which uses events and communications to promote community across the company's more than 700-person global workforce", and a fast-paced work environment geared towards constant innovation.

As a reflection of that strong community mindset and devotion to embracing the bizarre, Gap Adventures celebrated the Best Workplaces ranking in a typically off-beat way with Hot Dogs & Haircuts. The company offered free hot dogs (including veggie versions) to all staff at its Toronto Base Camp headquarters on April 15, as well as free haircuts between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm.

The fifth annual list of Best Workplaces in Canada is compiled by Great Place to Work Institute Canada. At the heart of The Institute Canada's definition of a great place to work are the five dimensions of credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. They researched more than 220 Canadian companies ranging in size from 50 to 50,000 employees from all sectors. The competition process is based on two criteria: two-thirds of the total score comes from a 57-statement survey completed by a random selection of employees, along with their open-ended comments about their organization; the remaining one-third of the score comes from an in-depth review of the organization's culture, including an evaluation of HR policies and procedures.

For more information, visit www.gapadventures.com or www.greatplacetowork.ca.

About the Great Place to Work Institute
Great Place to Work Institute is a global research and management consultancy with expertise on workplace transformation and a presence in 40 countries worldwide. Our mission is to improve society by creating better workplaces. We are best-known for our global Best Workplaces Programme, which we produce in conjunction with prestigious media partners such as the Financial Times and Fortune. With more than 4,000 organizations taking part in over 44 national lists across the globe, the programme is the world's largest of its kind. We believe passionately that any company or organization can become a great place to work. Our mission is to help you do it.

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.

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