Coming into the COVID-19 pandemic, Goway had a 50-year history of delivering travel ideas for globetrotters, the perfect repeat client for travel. We had established teams of travel experts to advise and sell to every long-haul destination: Australia and the South Pacific; Africa and the Middle East; Latin America; All Asia; and All Europe. Over the years, our website (goway.com) and all of our brochures stated our simple company philosophy:
“We want you to be more than satisfied with our service so that (1) you will recommend us to your friends and (2) you will try one of our other great travel ideas next time you go travelling.”
Although we became very good at selling long-haul trips, we couldn't say that we sold the entire world. What was missing from our roster in 2019 were travel ideas for and in the United States and Canada. To remedy that, we hired Colin Rusch, an experienced veteran when it came to inbound travel to Canada plus the U.S. Colin’s mandate was to create travel ideas for goway.com that would appeal to North Americans and also overseas visitors, particularly from Australia and Britain. But this was not Goway’s first North American rodeo.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, fledgling Goway was in fact a pioneer in the development of inbound tourism in Canada and the U.S. We were the very first operator offering fun young-adult camping tours across North America. We knew we were the first because we did so on June 1, 1973—one week before the American focused Trek America, our main competitor—started theirs. Our trips were modelled on the very successful European Camping Tours that Goway had already specialized in selling to the 18-30 young adult market (see Goway’s Europe Origin story).
The first-ever trip in 1973, called Goway’s Overland Trek, took 24 days to travel from Toronto across Canada’s Great Lakes, Prairies and Rockies to Vancouver and then back across America visiting Yellowstone, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands and Chicago to Toronto. The price was CAD $369 plus $2 per day food kitty. All camping equipment was provided (except sleeping bags) and was carried with passengers’ luggage on top of a 15-seat minibus.
We traded in my car to buy the minibus and that is what my wife had to use to buy groceries the following winter. Obviously over time we bought and rented more minibuses. Sometimes we would also rent full-size coaches.
USA-Canada Road Stories
As cellphones weren’t yet around, tour leaders were required to call in to HQ every three to four days, making collect calls. If the caller was, say, “Bill Right,” we knew everything was all right, so we wouldn't accept the charge unless we actually wanted to talk our employee. When the tour leader used his correct name, we knew he wanted to talk to us, so we would accept the call. These guys also used regular maps as GPS was not yet invented.
Once, a tour leader who was in between trips and I used two empty seats on our Vancouver-bound bus to the hop off at Quetico Provincial Park, north of Thunder Bay. We hitchhiked in and out of the park, where we canoed for four days. Although we had a lot of fun, I can’t speak for the guy who sat next to us the plane back to Toronto. After four days in the bush, we likely didn’t smell great.
I always emphasized that passenger safety was paramount in everything we did on the tours. I would wake up at night worried about having an accident and injuring someone.
Once, an agent in Europe who tried to avoid paying us for a four-week group tour around America. I had to threaten that we would terminate his tour that Friday in Los Angeles, at the halfway point, if we didn't receive payment. He paid, but the following day the group had a serious accident, and we needed a replacement minibus. Fortunately, no one was injured in any way and the passengers reported at the end of the trip that it was excellent. Also fortunate was the fact that the accident happened in Los Angeles, where we were able to quickly find a replacement bus. The European agency was obviously having financial difficulties as they went broke at the end of that summer. It was also fortunate that we got paid when we did, because it would have held back payment because of the accident.
A similar accident occurred on another occasion on a departure from Vancouver. No one was reportedly hurt and we were also able to once again secure a replacement minibus and keep the tour on schedule. Because of the seriousness of the situation, I flew to Calgary to meet our group and took them to dinner to get more details about the accident from the passengers themselves. To my surprise, one of them—a young lady—sported a plaster cast on her leg. I sat next to her and apologized for the mishap. "No," she corrected me, pointing out that her injury had nothing to do with the minibus accident. "I fell off a horse a couple of days before departure."
Once, in Fairbanks, Alaska, we had to replace a whole minibus engine. Because we had some flexibility in our itinerary, we were able to finish our engine repair in two days and stay on schedule.
Our very first brochure was printed in black ink on a Canadian Tourist Commission “shell” folder, which the Commission gave us for free. By 1976, we printed our own two-colour “Young Adult Adventures” (YAA) brochure, which was eight pages and also featured weekly canoe trips in Algonquin Park. By 1977, our two-colour YAA brochure had doubled in size to include Goway’s own Central and South American journeys and three more Canada/USA trips. In the 1980s, we printed our first-ever 32-page full-colour YAA brochure featuring more trips in North America including Yukon and Alaska. In 1982, we printed our first 16-page full-colour “Goway’s Canada and the Americas” brochure.
In 1986, I discovered a conflict-of-interest problem with our operations manager, who was renting vehicles for Goway from a middle company he had shares in. This man had also talked me into moving our operations to Vancouver. The move was logical. Our insurance premium had increased by $1,000 per minibus and we could save that by using the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC). But this manager was also unfortunately employing low-quality driver/leaders. At the same time, I received an offer to buy or merge our operation with a competitor, American Adventures. I accepted the merger idea and the new AmeriCan Adventures operated with the same name but used our logo showing America in blue with a star in the capital ‘A’ and Canada in red with half a maple leaf in the ‘C.’ Goway was a 50-percent shareholder.
More Firsts
I will suggest that pioneers don’t always realize they’re pioneering when they’re in the thick of it all. I sure didn’t, but I do have a few more firsts to share.
As already mentioned, Goway was the first operator of fun camping tours in North America for young adults, just as they were in Europe in the sixties and seventies. Because we were operating “different” kinds of tours aimed specifically at young adults, we got the attention of the Ontario Tourism Board and later CPAir and Air Canada. Tourism Ontario invited me and my friend Rod Hurd to be part of the very first Canadian travel mission to Europe, specifically London and Frankfurt. There were about 10 of us representing different modes of tourism such as motorhomes, coach/hotel tours, inbound tourism (ITO) and youth travel. Our delegation included members of the Tourism Board and we were led by the Ontario Minister of Tourism. Consular offices in Britian and Germany set up business meetings and receptions for us to meet face-to-face with the very top tourism operators in those countries. Rod and I did two of those tourism missions.
Tourism Ontario was also generous in supporting Goway’s attendance at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, where buyers and sellers from all over the world gather (and still do) each November. WTM in London and ITB in Berlin are the two largest international travel buyer and seller events in the world.
The first-ever Rendezvous Canada, the largest Canadian inbound tourism conference, opened in 1977; I attended and went back to it for over a decade. It is similar to INDABA in South Africa, ATE in Australia and IPW (originally called Powwow) in the U.S. Attending these events, I was able to build a network of general sales agents (GSAs) around the world, the best being in Australia, New Zealand, and London, England. However, in time, Goway began to sell to both American and Canadian travel agents.
When Goway’s AmeriCan Connections merged into American Adventures (AA), we had 55 minibuses running all over Canada, the United States, and Mexico. In time, I would sell our half shares to David Stitt, my partner in AA. Eventually, David also sold the company, and I don’t believe it exists anymore. Knowing David, I believe he would have made good money with the sale.
Thinking Big, Acting Small
Even though the Goway group of businesses today employs over 800 people in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the Philippines, I still like to remind our management of the Goway Way to “think big but act small.” We must always remember we were also small once, and never lose the culture of the small entrepreneur who always searches for economic ways to do things. That is mainly because Goway was small for so long. A lot of companies around the world now want the well-established Goway to sell their products. I respect where they are coming from as I once was on the other side of the table. I will tell a couple of stories about getting Goway’s AmeriCan Connections noticed.
Making Mr. Canada
At the Rendezvous Canada show one year, I met Les Leverson, a South African who told me that he wanted to be “Mr. Canada” in his country. I told him that if he invited me to the next South African Airways (SAA) Road Show in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, I would make him what he wanted to be. He asked “How?” and I said, “Just invite me!” And he did. Later I went to Malabar Limited, a costume emporium in Toronto, and told them I wanted two Mountie uniforms for a promotion in the city. I didn’t think that they would like the idea of me taking them out of the country. In any case, they said, “No, you can’t have them because they’re police uniforms—we could let you have them if you were going out of the country.” So I told the truth and off we went. In South Africa, Les met us and we changed into the uniforms at the hotel where the first SAA event was being held. Five minutes before the event would start, we caught the elevator to the event floor to walk over to our booth. With two Mounties crossing the room, several hundred people immediately went silent. Our photo appeared in three newspapers, including the front page in Durban. Mission accomplished!
Getting Help From Yukon Jack
Launching a new tour (usually at RVC) would always take at least two years to get off the ground. It was like the trip would be tested the next summer, then promoted for the following year.
So, when we launched our new 28-day Yukon/Alaska Camping Safari, I was determined to get it off the ground in one year. To do that I would use Yukon Jack, a duty-free liquor that our tour leaders would buy at the border. At the next RVC, I rented the smallest room available for two hours, straight after the last day’s meetings. Everyone who visited our booth had been shown the label of our “special friend” and was invited to a Yukon Jack cocktail event for as long as they wanted to stay. The label called it “the Black Sheep of Canadian Liquors.”
I promoted the drink as “standard issue on all Goway camping tours, where it can be drunk if anyone got cold at night and is a great backup if we ever ran out of petrol!” We had a full house! Guests only sipped it, as they preferred a safe beer. The very first Goway Yukon/Alaska tour left the following year on July 1. It was a double departure.
My Own Personal Travels through North America
Having lived in North America for over 50 years, I am fortunate to be able to imply that, as the pop song says, “I've been everywhere, man.” But that isn’t entirely true, as there are some places I would love to visit but haven’t yet, such as Canada’s Arctic.
Memorable places that I have been to include Yosemite, which fulfilled a childhood dream; my primary school had had a beautiful wall painting of the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. When I visited the park, it did not disappoint. Nearby are the fabulous Redwoods. Then there is Yellowstone with its wildlife and geysers. The Grand Canyon is where my wife Claire and I hiked halfway down to a lookout. First Nations guides escorted us around Monument Valley, featured in many western movies, and Mesa Verde’s famous cliff dwellings.
I have been many times to Banff and Jasper, Canada’s stunning Rocky Mountain National Parks. Ontario’s Algonquin and Quetico Parks provided many canoeing experiences. In fact, canoeing into the wilderness became my favourite Canadian pastime. On a “boys’ trip” with my mate Rod and our sons, I will never forget the otters swimming in our canoe’s wake. The Ottawa River’s whitewater rafting includes only four rapids, but the last one called the “Colosseum” flipped our raft. After escaping from underneath the overturned raft, Claire and I and another woman kept cascading down the rapids. I pushed the girls into a rock, but the power of the water forced me back out and over a six-foot waterfall, giving me a big black bruise on my rear for weeks. A month later, Claire and I rode in a much bigger raft with an outboard motor, down the Fraser River in British Columbia. We rode 30 rapids, disembarking just before Hell’s Gate. That particular experience was always the No. 1 experience on all our cross-Canada camping adventures.
Once, I enjoyed a one-night mini-cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico, where we saw a shark attack. A hundred yards from our cabin railing, the shark bit a seal in half.
Cruising Alaska
We did two family trips to Alaska—one on a small ship that claimed to have the largest library afloat. The other cruise was with my friend Geoff on his private boat that can only accommodate 10 people including crew. The large cruise ship from Vancouver to Alaska and back to Vancouver was more of an educational experience with lots of lectures. Apart from the spectacular scenery that the Inside Passage is famous for, highlights included the whales swimming past our water-level breakfast dining area, and visiting the replica of the Vietnam War Monument in Washington, D.C. This replica travels around America and was on display at the high school in the port we were visiting. I have seen the real thing in Washington, but this display was on a school football field with a mountainous backdrop and full military accompaniment on display. It was very moving.
Once Geoff hosted us on his private boat in Alaska, his hospitality and the camaraderie of his guests matching the incredible experience. This included Geoff personally taking the Hodges in the boat’s Zodiac up to the base of the Columbia glacier in Prince William Sound, through mini-icebergs that had been carved from the huge frozen river. Up another fjord, we were able to hike to a lookout to view grizzly bears fishing for salmon with their paws. I dropped my sunglasses down to the river’s edge, but no one, including me, was prepared to fetch them. On our way back to Vancouver, we did an overnight cruise to make up time. Our skipper and Geoff were concerned about our small boat hitting “dead heads,” lost waterlogged timber logs that float vertically.
54 Polar Bears
That is how many bears Claire and I saw when we flew into Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson’s Bay. We were able to see that number with the help of a helicopter and a tundra buggy—these vehicles are like heated school busses with an outside viewing deck, on very high and large wheels. Our driver took us to where the region’s famous polar bears would walk around our vehicle and even reach up to our deck or windows. Because they are the most dangerous of all bears, it is the law in Churchill to not lock your house or car in case someone needs refuge when a roaming bear is encountered.
This last point reminds me of a time when Ken & Ro Munro (my best man and Claire’s matron of honour) visited us from Australia. We had stayed at a lodge and on our way home I used a trick I had learned to view bears, pulling into the lodge’s garbage dump area. We quickly became surrounded by 15 black bears, including cubs. Never before or since has my trick generated that number of the creatures that close. It was similar to an African safari.
Like Another Country: Newfoundland and Labrador
In the summer of 2025, Claire and I attended the wedding of our friends Rod and Janet Hurd’s son Jonathan. Jonathan was the teenage birthday boy for whom I had made an interesting birthday cake in the Botswana desert (mentioned in Goway’s Africa Origin Story). Jonathan's bride was from the picturesque Newfoundland town of Brigus, where we had a real fun night in a convivial atmosphere.
On this trip, Claire and I took the opportunity to do a self-drive experience organized by Goway's North America experts team. We visited St John’s, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador; Cape Spear to see puffins; beautiful Trinity, whose billboard stated, "Looking after visitors for 400 years"; Twillingate on “Iceberg Alley,” where we went whale watching, and Harbour Grace, famous for its aeronautical history (Harbour Grace was the launching point of Amelia Earhart’s record-breaking 1932 non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic). Time and distance prevented us from visiting the province’s actual Viking settlement, which I would love to have seen.
The highlight of our trip was spending three nights at the top-class Fogo Island Inn, created by the successful island-born businesswoman Zita Cobb. Nothing about our visit disappointed me—except maybe the fact that we would have seen icebergs if we had come a month earlier. Everywhere the locals lived up to their reputation for hospitality. The hit Broadway musical Come from Away is based on the welcome that the residents of nearby Gander gave to airline passengers stranded there on September 11.
Newfoundland is the closest part of North America to Europe but has a history of immigrants settling in remote areas and learning how to entertain themselves. Their dialect is therefore distinctive and their habits are unique. I even got "screeched" and had to kiss a cod (Google it).
Our Offerings Today
While Mexico and Central America are handled by Goway’s Latin America team, our North America expert today specialize in Canada and the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska. They pay special attention to American and Canadian national parks and have a special focus on Churchill in Manitoba (famous for its polar bears) and on Newfoundland (like another country) as well as on Greenland.
Approximately 100 travel ideas can be found at www.goway.com. Sean Hebert is the Vice President and Robert Miller is the Commercial Manager. They create, develop and enhance unique travel experiences for serious travellers.
More Goway Origin Stories
In addition to North America, I have written other origin stories about the early days selling and promoting Goway’s main Globetrotter destinations, including Australia, Asia, Africa, Latin America and all Europe. I have included some personal travel experiences for all destinations. Please click on the origin story you are interested in, and also note that www.goway.com features thousands of travel ideas for Globetrotters, with Goway’s experts ready and able to personalize travel itineraries.
Bruce Hodge is the Founder & President of Goway Travel. In 1970, he started the company out of his Toronto apartment with nothing but a telephone and a projector. Over 55 years later, Goway has more than 800 team members across three continents who work tirelessly to craft dream vacations for globetrotters. Born and raised in Australia but making his home in Canada, Bruce always had a passion for travel and followed this dream to build one of North America’s leading travel companies.
While his bucket list only gets longer year after year, he continues to explore far and wide across Goway’s slate of over 115 countries on all seven continents. He has run the Athens marathon, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, ventured along the historic Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, trekked to penguin colonies in the Falkland Islands, and bushwhacked through the jungles of Papua New Guinea. He’s continually drawn beyond the horizon to experience all the riches that our wonderful world has to offer.