Canadian Travel Hall of Fame 2024: Poon Tip, Guillemette & Merrithew/De Grandpré

Created by TravelPulse Canada in 2018, the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame recognizes the visionary leaders of one of Canada’s most important, vibrant and resilient industries. The launch marked the first time Canadian travel entrepreneurs received this level of appreciation.

Inductees include mercurial Canadian airline leaders Max Ward, Clive Beddoe, Robert Deluce and Calin Rovinescu, bold charter and tour operator builders Patrick Brigham, Colin Hunter, Jean-Marc Eustache and Bruce Hodge, retail specialists including Vicki Borenstein, the Demarinis brothers and Stephanie Anevich and tech visionaries like Moise Levy.

Jacques Gilbert was inducted into the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame at the 2023 TravelPulse Canada Readers’ Choice Awards. (Photo Credit: John Kirk)

Last year, the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame welcomed long-time industry executive Susan Bowman, entrepreneur and cruise-seller extraordinaire Mike Drever, and Jacques Gilbert, the man who made travel insurance fun.

“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who have contributed to the development of the modern Canadian travel industry,” said John Kirk, President and Editor in Chief, TravelPulse Canada, who championed and created the Hall of Fame. “We felt it was extremely important to foster an event and online space where their contributions can be highlighted.”

The Hall of Fame honours individuals who have left a lasting legacy in the world of travel. It was launched concurrently with the first TravelPulse Canada Readers’ Choice Awards, which celebrate the nation’s best travel companies and personalities as voted on by thousands of Canadian travel professionals.

“This will be the third sold-out Readers’ Choice Awards and Canadian Travel Hall of Fame induction since the travel industry basically shut down in 2020 and 2021,” says Kirk. “That experience of collective trauma has further strengthened the bonds of this extraordinary industry, and made it even more important to celebrate the best of us.”

Here are the 2024 Canadian Travel Hall of Fame inductees:

Lucie Guillemette rose through the ranks to become an Air Canada senior executive. (Photo Credit: Air Canada Media License)

Lucie Guillemette – Always Gaining Altitude

Lucie Guillemette began her career at Air Canada in 1987 as a Customer Service and Sales Agent. Forty years later in 2017, she was recognized by the Women’s Executive Network as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Business in the Corporate Executive category.

She learned Air Canada from top to bottom through roles in passenger marketing, revenue and product management, marketing and commercial, human resources, network planning – the list goes on.  

In 2015, she was named Senior Vice President, Revenue Optimization, with responsibility for yield management, pricing strategies, global sales and distribution activities. She was also President of Air Canada Vacations prior to her retirement in 2023.

In a retirement tribute, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau said: “It is no coincidence that Lucie’s rise through the senior management ranks paralleled the transformation of Air Canada into a leading global carrier, with our revenue doubling and our profitability growing even faster as we undertook a major, international network expansion.”

Merit Travel Group co-founder Michael Merrithew. (Photo Credit: PHOTO: Merit Travel)

Michael Merrithew and Louise de Grandpré – Leaders of Great Merit

Married in 1981 after graduating from the University of New Brunswick, Michael Merrithew and Louise de Grandpré have spent more than 40 years as partners in life and business.

Louise de Grandpré, co-founder of Merit Travel Group. (Photo Credit: PHOTO: Merit Travel)

The pair grew a small Uniglobe franchise purchased in 1991 into Merit Travel Group, a multi-faceted company with 550 employees and annual revenues of $400 million. Now retired from the travel business, Michael and Louise are still active investors in different businesses.

Bruce Poon Tip created G Adventures, now the world’s largest small-group adventure travel operator. (Photo Credit: John Kirk)

Bruce Poon Tip – Dream Big, Travel Small

Following a backpacking trip to Asia, Bruce Poon Tip had a vision to make travel better by bridging the divide between backpacking and mainstream travel, and connecting travellers with local people in the countries they visit. In 1990, at the age of 22 and on two maxed-out credit cards, Bruce started G Adventures. Thirty-four years later, G Adventures is the world’s largest small group adventure travel company, offering more than 750 tours to 100 countries, and hosting more than 200,000 travellers per year.

With a growing belief that travel can be a force for social good and significant wealth distribution, Bruce founded G Adventures’ non-profit partner, the Planeterra Foundation in 2003. Planeterra harnesses the power of the tourism supply chain to channel travellers’ dollars into underserved communities around the world. Bruce’s passion, energy and commitment has made him a global leader in social entrepreneurship, leadership, immersive travel, and innovation.

In the coming weeks prior to the TravelPulse Canada Readers’ Choice Awards set for May 16 at Hotel X Toronto, we’ll profile each of this year’s new members with a story highlighting their achievements.

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