G Adventures continues its vaccination efforts with the announcement of its Vaccinated Tours program and "Travel-Ready" tours, as well as more than 360 departures available for OCT 2021.
Each Vaccinated Tour will require all travellers to be fully vaccinated, who will be accompanied by a fully vaccinated chief experience officer (CEO or tour guide) leading the tour. On Vaccinated Tours, all travellers and CEOs must have received a full COVID-19 vaccination with the final dose administered at least 14 days prior to day one of the tour.
In a 20-26APR survey of 4,624 responses from G Adventures’ global consumer panel, 56 per cent of respondents expressed that having a vaccinated CEO was actually more important to them than their fellow travellers being fully vaccinated, and 45 per cent of travellers indicated they would prefer travelling on a small group tour.
G Adventures is also introducing "Travel-Ready" tours for equitable access to tourism employment opportunities for CEOs in destinations which have not yet been able to administer vaccinations as widely as others. The adventure tour operator is also actively assisting CEOs to access vaccines in their home countries. On Travel-Ready tours, all travellers and CEOs must have either received a full COVID-19 vaccination, or have a negative PCR test within 96 hours prior to Day One of their tour’s departure.
The two new tour programs are an evolution of G Adventures’ existing Travel with Confidence policy, implemented in JUN 2020, which still remains in place with enhanced health, safety and physical distancing measures.
Jeff Russill, chief operating officer at G Adventures, said that while the company is prioritizing the placement of vaccinated CEOs, they also want to continue with the company’s mission of changing lives through travel in as many countries as possible, as quickly as possible, through community tourism.
“By October we will have successfully, and safely, run close to 1,000 tours since September 2020 - more tours than any other operator - supporting employment and boosting the local economies of countries that are dependent on tourism, such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Morocco, Peru and Kenya. We are starting with Vaccinated Tours in October and will be adding future departures as we confirm CEOs and travellers are all fully vaccinated in order to lead and travel on those itineraries.
“As a global operator, we also want to ensure travel equity for those travellers who haven’t been able to be vaccinated as yet due to their age and / or home country, as we have travellers from more than 160 countries join our trips. We expect vaccination rates to increase in most destinations later this year, and as they do we will be operating even more Vaccinated Tours,” says Russill.
Of the operator's 360 tours in OCT 2021, 116 tours will operate as Vaccinated Tours, while 64 departures will be designated as Travel-Ready. An icon will be featured next to each trip at www.gadventures.com to indicate which category of tour the departure falls under.
Example Vaccinated Tours and Travel-Ready trips that are available for travellers to book for travel in OCT include:
- Local Living Italy: Amalfi Coast
- On this trip, travellers will live like the locals, discovering the small towns, mountain trails, and local customs. Guests can explore the ruins of Pompeii in the morning, hike the coastline of the Med by afternoon, and tuck into bed in a converted 17th-century monastery home base at sundown. The eight-day Vaccinated Tour travelling from Naples on 09OCT 2021, is priced from $2,379 per person.
- Classic Mexico Adventure
- Cities, beaches, jungle, and the curious spices of mole sauce all await on this 14-day tour that sees travellers hit the beach, discover the ruins of the Mayans, and wander colonial cities. The 14-day Vaccinated Tour departing from Mexico City to Playa del Carmen on 02OCT 2021 is priced from $2,239 per person.
- Egypt and Jordan Adventure
- This adventure showcases the region’s natural wonders and cultures, offering a combination of guided excursions with free time to explore. Expert local leaders will share the archaeological and historical secrets of the ancient sites of Petra, Luxor, and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The 15-day Travel-Ready tour departing on 29OCT 2021 and travelling from Cairo to Amman is priced from $3,839 per person.
G Adventures notes that its prices do not include international flights.
For more information on G Adventures, please visit www.gadventures.com.
