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flies to MS Explorer’s watery grave

Sunday, November 25 2007

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Poon Tip flies to MS Explorer’s
watery grave

By Raynier Maharaj Sunday, November 25
2007

click on pic to zoom
in

ANTARCTIC SHIP SINKING: Passengers from the Canadian cruise
ship Explorer sit in lifeboats after the Explorer struck a submerged
iceberg off Antarctic...

« prev photo next photo »

TORONTO: Trinidadian Bruce
Poon Tip’s GAP Adventures is in emergency response mode, setting up a
hotline to deal with the “thousands” of enquiries from around the world
following Friday’s sinking of one of the most famous ships in the world,
the MS Explorer.

Poon Tip is reportedly among his company’s senior
directors who flew to the site of the sinking on Friday, after learning
the ship was in distress.

The Canadian-registered Explorer, owned
by Poon Tip, sank at 7 pm Friday, some 17 hours after it hit an ice floe
in the Antarctic. The 154 passengers and crew “evacuated the ship in a
calm and orderly fashion” and were picked up by a Norwegian ship shortly
after the distress call was sent out just after midnight on Friday, Marie
Anne McRae, spokesperson for GAP Adventures in Toronto, told Sunday
Newsday yesterday.

“The Explorer, built in Finland in 1969 by the
world-famous exploring team Lindblad brothers specifically for ecological
missions, was acquired by Poon Tip in 2004. Just on October 21 this year,
it came off dry dock after passing a rigid safety inspection process
initiated by insurers Lloyds of London. It was fully certified and this
was its first tour since the safety certification.”

Known around
the world as the “Little Red Ship,” the Explorer has been featured in some
250 books, and is considered one of the world’s most famous vessels. The
Explorer has sailed around the world, and routinely travels from the
Arctic to the Antarctic taking tourists on ecological tours. It was one of
the key attractions of Poon Tip’s GAP Adventures, a company with more than
20 offices around the world and Canadian $100 million in revenues
annually. (Poon Tip’s firm updated Newsday’s figures of $35 million
carried in yesterday’s story).

McRae told Sunday Newsday that all
of the ship’s passengers and crew are in good spirits, and are currently
in Punta Arenas, Chile, from where some flew home yesterday, and others
are expected to do so today. She said passengers were being given the
option of continuing their vacation on land in South America. All expenses
were being met by GAP Adventures, McRae confirmed.

The spokeswoman
could not put a value to the Explorer, saying that information is not
available at this time.

She expressed sadness that the Little Red
Ship was no more. But, she added,” we’d rather lose the ship than any
lives.” She could not say whether there would be any efforts to salvage
the world-famous vessel.

The ship’s crew came in for commendation
for the way they handled the evacuation of the vessel after the emergency
was declared.

Poon Tip, 37, is hailed as one of the Top 40
Canadians under 40, and started his company in 1991 with $800. Today, it
is one of the Top ten adventure companies in the world, with offices
around the globe, from Canada to Australia.

It primarily offers
ecological tours, and on this trip Explorer passengers were being given
the opportunity to observe whales and penguins in their natural habitat.

Besides receiving an award as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40,
Poon Tip has also been honoured as one of Canada’s top five entrepreneurs
by Canadian Business as well as Canada’s 100 leaders of tomorrow. Profit
magazine named him in their 20th anniversary issue cover story as one of
Canada’s Top Ten Entrepreneurs of the last 20 years. Bruce also received
the Global Traders Leadership award from the government for his ground
breaking ideas in exporting services.

Recently Poon Tip was asked
by the World Bank and UNESCO to represent a team to visit the Peoples
Republic Of China to lecture on Sustainable Development. In January of
2002 he was the only Canadian operator invited to speak at the United
Nations Launch of the Year Of Eco-Tourism in New York. Poon Tip defied the
odds once again last year by winning Canada’s prestigious Entrepreneur of
the Year, as well as the National Citation for Entrepreneurship.

GAP’s additional awards inclu-de having two trips chosen among the
TOP 25 Adventures in the World by National Geographic Adventure magazine,
the Ethics in Action Award, the Global Traders Award and the Clean Air
Com-mute Award for five straight years.

Although a consummate
business man, Poon Tip has a conscience and he has founded his entire
enterprise on the concept of sustainability and established travel
practices that show consideration of natural surroundings and local
cultures. By limiting the travel group size to 12 people, by taking local
transportation and staying in small, locally owned hotels and guesthouses,
GAP travellers are able to minimise their footprint in foreign communities
and get maximum exposure to local culture.

In a recent interview,
Poon Tip shared how he managed to purchase the Explorer, the world’s first
purpose-built expedition cruise ship. In March of 2004 Bruce went on an
expedition cruise through the Antarctic and fell in love with the
experience. He figured he need to buy his own expedition cruise ship and
started looking for suitable vessels. In April of 2004 he found the
“Explorer”, a historic expedition ship with a capacity of 112 passengers
and a crew of 60 people. The ship had been docked in Genoa, Italy, for
many months due to the financial problems of its owners. Just another two
months later, but after many complications, GAP took possession of the
ship. Only another four months later, after extensive restorations, the
Explorer went on its inaugural journey and offered expedition cruises to
such unique places as Antarctica, the Amazon, Spitz-bergen, and
Greenland.

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