In Sydney to talk at tonight’s Future of Tourism event (and perhaps to get a touch of sun before heading back to a cooling Toronto), G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip maintained his company’s relationship with travel agents will remain strong into the future.

An almost universal preferred operator, eighty percent of all G Adventures’ business comes from travel agents and wholesalers, Mr Poon Tip told e-Travel Blackboard, a figure he doesn’t anticipate changing any time soon.

“We’re a high touch product that needs a travel agent,” he said.

According to Mr Poon Tip, as the industry moves toward more and more consolidation, the survival of the travel agent depends on their offering of a “professional service”.

This service entails putting the customer’s needs first, he said, pointing to G Adventures’ 100 percent guaranteed departures for 2013.

Consumers can lose out when waiting to find out if a tour will come to fruition and all the while airfares will only rise closer to the date of proposed departure, Mr Poon Tip said.

“I want to make it as easy as possible for travel agents.

“I don’t want them to have a file on their desk for months checking to see if a tour will run.”